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EAST CHICAGO, A HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION
1977.299 BOLT
11267333
EAST CHICAGO
A Historical Description
BY
Floyd B. Bolton John P. Fox James P. Petronella Lillian Sowerby
DRAWINGS BY
Henry Fozkos Frank J. Marcinek
East Chicago Public Schools 1947
Stockton, Calif.
EAST CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY 3601 GRAND BLVD. EAST CHICA VIADIANA
Public School .15
COPYRIGHT, 1950 BY FLOYD B. BOLTON
)
PRINTED BY THE EAST CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS EAST"CHICAGO, INDIANA
No 184860 MAIN
FOREWORD
1, 9712
This book has been written to supplement the text used in ninth-grade social studies. Since texts cannot contain information about every community, teachers have needed information about East Chicago which can be put in pupils' hands. In preparing this volume, the authors have selected and arranged material to satisfy that particular need.
The material has been gathered from a variety of sources: books, magazines, annual reports, official records, statements prepared by representatives of various organiza- tions, and the accounts of eyewitnesses. Historical accu- racy would require that each source be indicated but the purpose of the book prohibits this. Direct quotations are identified and some effort has been made to check all state- ments.
Courtesy demands that the authors acknowledge the help they have received from others. Since almost every para- graph contains information furnished by two or three people, individual acknowledgement would require far too much space. Suffice it to say that the authors thank the hun- dreds of citizens who have helped them. Especial thanks are due to Superintendent A. C. Senour, who has read critically the entire manuscript; to Mr. N. T. Brunswick, who took some of the photographs; and to Miss Dorothy Dopiniak and Miss Ella Rieckhoff, vari-typists; Mr. Michael Hreha, multilith operator; and Mr. Marvin Kincaid of Washington High School who have done most of the mechanical work of preparing this edition.
F. B. B.
January, 1048
111
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
FOREWORD. 0 6
111
LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES. vil
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1x
Chapter
I. EAST CHICAGO -- CHICAGO SUBURB ..
Early Promoters. 2
Founding of the City. 4
City Planning. .
7
II. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.
11
Development of Transportation, o 12
16
Oil. .
18
Chemical.
19
Other Industries ......... 21
III. THE POLYGLOT POPULATION. .
24
First Settlers. 24
Analysis of the Population. 26
Representative Individuals 31
IV. OCCUPATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES.
35
Technical Occupations. . 35
Mechanical Trades. . . 36
Office Work. oo oo
37
Semi-Skilled Occupations . 0 0 0 0 000 38
Selling ..
40
Service Occupations ..
40
The Professions
41
V. RECREATIONAL FACILITIES.
43
Commercial Entertainment. 43
Parks. . o drove
45
Libraries ..
48
Lodges, Etc.
..
51
o
0
0
0
V1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
Page
VI. CHURCHES. .
53
Roman Catholicosos
54
Greek Catholic. ..
59
Greek Orthodox. .
59
60
Independent Congregations.
61
Protestants ....
64
JeWS. 000000000
VII. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS ..
65
Katherine House.
65
St. Joseph's Home for Girls. 66
St. Catherine's Hospital. 69 Red Cross ..... 70
Scouts ..
72
The Community Chest ..
74
Other Organizations
74
VIII. THE SCHOOLS OF EAST CHICAGO.
78
Establishing Schools ..
78
Expanding Services ..
82
89
Evaluation of the Schools ...
86
Financial Supporto.
....
IX. GOVERNMENT OF EAST CHICAGO.
92
Incorporationo . o .
92
The Executive Departments.
95
The City Council.
106
Courts.
106
APPENDIX
108
List of Industries .. 108
List of Churches. o
111
I LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
I. Country of Birth of Foreign-Born White Residents of East Chicago. . . . 27
II. Numbers of Foreign-Born and of Native Born of Mixed or Foreign Parentage in East Chicago in 19300 6 . 28
III.
Nativity and Race of Population of
East Chicago.
29
IV.
Number of Retail Stores, East Chicago,
Indiana ..
41
v.
September Enrollment by Departments at
Five-Year Intervals, East Chicago Schools
79
VI. Data on Public School Buildings.
81
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
Page
1. Organization of East Chicago Public Schools in 1946 .. ... 85
2. Organization of the Government of East Chicago. 94
vit
1
.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page Map of East Chicago. Frontispiece
An Early Indiana Harbor Home
x
Pouring Iron into an Open Hearth.
10
The Land of Liberty.
23
What Shall I Be ?.
34
Tod Park. .
46
The Sacred Heart Church
57
Play Room, Katherine House.
67
Pupils Leaving Garfield School.
87
The City Hall.
91
1x
Chapter 1
EAST. CHICAGO - CHICAGO SUBURB
East Chicago, the eighth largest city of Indiana, is a thriving industrial dity located in the region deseribed by the Bureau of Census as the Metropolitan Area of Chicago in Indiana. The name suggests that the city touches Chicago on the east, but East Chicago is really twenty miles southwest of the central business district of Chicago and two miles from the east limits of Chicago. However, the founding and the industrial growth of East Chicago were largely due to its nearness to the metropolis.
From Chicago came many of the leaders in the develop- ment of East Chicago, and much of the necessary capital. Even today many of the influential industrialists and busi- ness men of East Chicago dwell in Chicago, and many of its industries maintain offices there.
Settlements are usually made along the coast before being made inland. . However, the land borth of what is now the Lincoln Highway was onde part of the old lake bed of the ancient Lake Chicago, the old glacial lake of which all that remains is Lake Michigan. The region is so fint that it lacks natural drainage. The sandy soil has been so recently reclaimed from the lake that it has not yet acquired enough humus to fit it for agriculture and near the lake were many ridges of pure sand and gravel. Hence, settlers shunned this swampy land covered with underbrush and built their homes farther south where the soil was better for farming.
Settlement of Lake County began in the 1830's. The Fort Dearborn-Detroit trail was completed through the Calu- met Region soon after the Potowatomi had coded the future Lake County to the federal government by the Treaties of Missiesinewa in 1826 ard of Tippecanoe in 1833 This route followed an old Indian trail, nobody knows how old. " South
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of the Little Calumet marshes small villages sprang up and by 1837 there were 200 pioneers in that part of the county and Lake Courthouse, now called Crown Point, had been founded.
The early history of the Calumet Region is a story of speculation in land. Many efforts were made to colonize the area during the boom days of the thirties. Capitalists,; chiefly Eastern and British, laid out paper cities, some of which were Indiana City, where Marquette Park, Gary, is now located; Liverpool, which for a year was the first county seat; and City West, which flourished briefly just east of the present site of Gary. Each of these attempts to found an industrial city failed because of lack of money or engi- neering skill.
In 1833 a young civil engineer, George W. Clark, came to Chicago where he was employed in various projects. Con- vinced, that some day there would be a "great metropolis at the foot of Lake Michigan where travel and transportation meet" and undaunted by the futility of the earlier attempts to locate an industrial city in that region, Clark in 1853 began buying some of the swamp land of Lake County that the federal government had turned over to the state of Indiana to be used for school-fund purposes. Within a few years Clark owned the land extending from the Indiana-Illinois bstate line to the street of Broadway in Gary. This included all or part of what is today: Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, and Whiting. Before his death in 1866 Clark had sold 4000 acres of his tract to George T. Cline and Allen Dorsey for $20,000. This included the land where Buffington stands to- day.
About 1800, Clark drew a map of the Calumet area upon which he printed. "Poplar Point" where Indiana Harbor is now Located. He apparently planned there a shipping place for lumber. He also sketched a connection of Wolf Lake with Lake Michigan about four miles northwest of his Poplar Point
and used the name "Indiana Harbor of Wolf Lake. " As far as is known, this was the first use of the name Indiana Harbor. 8 Clark's holdings were left to his sister Caroline Forsythe, whose husband, Jacob Forsythe, became Clark's business successor. Forsythe established a saw mill at Poplar Point and built a grist mill and siding adjacent to the Pennsylvania tracks. A little settlement walled Cassello sprang up there. Lumber from this sawmill helped to rebuild Chicago after the Great Fire. After the sawmill burned in 1872, the settlement died out. Forsythe had added to his holdings until he had 20,000 acres: In 1881 he sold 8,000 acres of the site of the future East Chicago to the London banking firm of Melville and Evans, operating in this transaction as the East Chicago Improvement Corporation. This was the first use of the name East Chicago. This cor- poration gave John Stewart Kennedy, a New York capitalist, power of attorney with the right to handle its holdings in Lake County.|
At this time most of the land of the Calumet area was still a waste of swamps, quaking bogs, and sand. It was visited little except by hunters. The total population out- side Hammond, where the Hammond Packing Company had already located was not more than 800. Whiting's Crossing, Clark's station, now northwest Gary, and Miller's station had a few settlers, most of whom were section hands on the railroads. The development of the region waited for capital and indus- try.de
,Meanwhile General Joseph Torrence of Chicago had become convinced of the promise of the region for industry. He in- duced Marcus Towle, who was connected with the Hammond Pack- ing Company, to furnish capital to form the Calumet Canal and Improvement Company which in 1887 bought a site from the East Chicago, Improvement, Corporation. General Torrence planned to bring about the construction of, a canal to con- nect Lake Michigan and the Grand Calumet River. He recog-
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nized the need of added railroad connection and promoted the Company sold sites, scattered throughout its holdings, to organization of the Chicago and Calumet Terminal Company, the first belt line in the region. The coming of this rail- road in 1888 brought manufacturers who sought cheap factory sites outside the city of Chicago but in communication with it.
In 1887 the lowle-Torrence interests, operating as the Standard Steel and Iron Company, plotted the first subdivi- sion of the town, extending from Railroad Avenue on the East to the alley immediately west of Forsythe (now Indianapolis) and from the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal to 151st Street. A cluster of dwellings soon sprang up, streets were laid out, and East Chicago began to be spoken of with favor by manufacturers. The city grew steadily but slowly for the next dozen years. In 1892 General Torrence withdrew from the companies in East Chicago with which he was connected. He is regarded as the real founder of the city as his fore- sight and organizing ability gave the city its start.
General Torrence had planned to hold the territory along the lake front in reserve, but in 1895 Owen T. Aldis and a group of Chicago associates formed the Lake Michigan Land Company which acquired the land now known as Indiana Harbor. In 1903, this company, the Calumet Canal and Im- provement Company, and the Standard Steel and Iron Company, which still owned large tracts in East Chicago proper, were absorbed by the East Chicago Company. Several prominent Chicago families including the Potter Palmers and, the McCormicks were interested in this company. The Kennedy interests soon gained control of the company and Charles W. Hotchkiss was made local representative.
Indiana Harbor became a boom town due to its advantages of location and the advertising of the East Chicago Company. The Michigan Southern ran special trains from Chicago tou bring out visitors who were interested in looking over the industrial sites in the fast-growing town. The East Chicago
one company after another. Although many of the industries were connected with iron or steel production or manufacture, diverse industries were drawn to the region as shown in another chapter. The list of firms to which the East Chicago Company sold land sounds like the industrial roster of the city. When organized, the East Chicago Company owned 7,000 acres of land; in 1915 it still owned 2,200 acres; to- day its name has disappeared from the map of East Chicago and most of the unoccupied land in the city is being held by industries already established here for future expansion.
When the Inland Steel Company located at Poplar Point in 1901, the name Cassello was dropped and most of the land from the harbor to the Grand Calumet became known as Indiana Harbor. Men rushed to the new town to work on construction, and a little later to work in the industry: At first a tent city sprang up on the beach but in a short time one- and two-story frame houses lined Regent, Commonwealth, Block, and Pennsylvania. A few scattered homes appeared on Grand, Elm, and Fir. The rest of the present Indiana Harbor was in the sloughs. For a time only a few blocks on Michigan Avenue were paved. Wooden sidewalks were built up above the marsh on stilts.
Only an old cinder trail down Kennedy and across Chicago Avenue connected Indiana Harbor with the older part of the city. There was no road to Whiting and no road east- ward. The stretch where the Harbison-Walker plant now stands was impassable in bad weather, At times to get from the Indiana Harbor section to East Chicago proper one had to take the Michigan Southern railroad to Whiting and then change to the street car which ran to East Chicago. The pioneers of East Chicago endured hardships although of a type different from those of other communities.
East Chicago has been said to have grown with a disre- gard for anything except its mills and transportation facil-
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ities. While it was yet a barren waste of sand, the site of the future city was crossed almost at liberty by, a consider- able number of trunk lines each seeking the shortest way in- to Chicago from the East. Then, attracted by the promise of rich returns as the city began to develop into an industrial center, the belt lines extended their tracks with little re- gard for the community. The result is that East Chicago has many more railroad tracks than are usually found in cities of its size and that it is split into various sections. The canal means much to the industrial well-being of the city, but is a barrier to the development of a unified, coherent community. The sites for early industries were chosen for advantages of transportation. People and business-sections have been grouped about the industries according to their ₦ size and advantages of employment.
"The Lake Michigan section of the Twin Cities is Indiana Harbor. Its.early settlers came to construct and work for the Inland Steel Company. With the Inland, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, the great foundries, and the car shops this section has become a city in itself. Although it has never had a separate government, there was a post office of Indiana Harbor until 1918.
East Chicago proper, the section west of .the canal, centers about the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Indianapolis Boulevard. It has its great oil and steel- finishing plants. This section fixed its name upon the city by virtue of being earlier established and having the city hall.
Between these two sections grew Calumet about its chemical plant and metal refineries. This section extends to the canal on the west and Chicago Avenue on the north. It was settled largely by Hungarians who established their own churches. The Lew Wallace School (later the Garfield) was a real community center for this region. The people of the Calumet region followed their own leaders and felt some- what set apart from the rest of the city.
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Near Indiana Harbor, but not exactly part of it, is & fourth section of the city, Marktown. 7 Most of the houses in this section were built by the Mark Manufacturing Company, predecessor of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, for renting to its employees. Now Youngstown has sold these properties and many are owned by the people who occupy them.
To some extent local transportation facilities, earlier the old "Green Line" and the electric road from East Chicago Four Corners, to the Indiana Harbor Four Corners and later the Shore Line Buses, have offset the division of the city by connecting the various sections with each other. The building of the viaduct (1929) on Columbus Drive helped to unite the two main business sections. The location of the Federal Building and the Central Fire Station near the line between the two sections was in response to a recommendation to establish a community center for the city. Other unify- ing influences are the men's service clubs whose members are drawn from both main business sections; various cultural organizations, city-wide in their membership; and joint support of community enterprises.
The present city of East Chicago is unfortunately com- pletely surrounded by neighboring cities on three sides -- Whiting on the north, Hammond on the west and south, Gary on the east, with Lake Michigan on the northeast. The terri- tory within its present boundaries, which are Carroll Street and the Grand Calumet River on the south, White Oak on the west, Cline Avenue on the east, 129th Street and Lake Michigan on the north comprises an area of 10.93 square miles which,/when the amount of space used by industries and railroads is considered, is very little for homes for over fifty thousand people.
V East Chicago's industrial expansion was so rapid that the important matter of planning and zoning was given little attention. In the October issue of the Chamber of Commerce
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Magazine, 1925, L. E. L. Thomas, Contributing Editor, had this to say: --
East Chicago has suffered from the absence of systematic regulation of its growth, to a much greater extent than most cities, principally because of its rapid expansion and wide diversity of interests, individ- ual and industrial.
On May 18, 1925, the Council passed an act signed by the mayor providing for the creation of a City Plan Commis- sion under the power granted by the Indiana Enabling Act of 1921. . The Commission was to be composed of 9 members: five Appointed by the mayor; one by the city Council; one from the Park Board, elected from its members; the President of the Board of Works; and the City Engineer. In 1926 the first City Plan Commission was ap; ointed by Mayor R .. P. fiale. In a survey of the working people of East Chicago a group of engineers found that almost half of the 20, 000 men employed in the bigger industries lived elsewhere. Hugh E. Carroll, attorney for the Commission, wrote: -
In diverse ways it (East Chicago) remained a "mill town. " In some respects it was still provincial and in many instances the sands of time had not eradicated the sands of the ancient lake on which it was built. Homes and apartments of the better type were not erected in numbers proportionate to a city of its size. On one hand there was a wealth of employment and money, while on the other, the finer elements of civic life were negligible. It became to many an excellent city for work but a poor place in which to live. Consequently, in steady progression, people moved to nearby cities possessing a minimum of employment but substantial improvement for life and in recreation and ammsement.
The depression began in 1929 before the City Plan Com- mission had had time to make any real progress. After the federal government established the Federal Housing Adminis- tration in 1938, there were several scattered private
using developments within the city but the high cost of te made it difficult to build houses which could be sold a low enough price for factory employees to buy them. An tempt to take advantage of the possibilities for slum- earance when the United States Housing Authority was tablished failed when a conflict in interests delayed tion until it was too late to secure aid from the federal ivernment. So the trend in population continued, more and re people moving away from the community while the number people working in the local plants was increasing. This is due to the industrial nature of the city and to the velopment of more attractive homesites outside the corpo- te limits. This does not mean that East Chicago is barren good housing facilities. There are several sections of je city where one will find well-constructed, attractive mes which will compare favorably with those of other com- inities. However, in contrast, one finds in other sections using conditions which are of very low standard.
The City Plan Commission which Mayor Migas appointed in 945 took two steps which can prove to be the turning point the housing situation in East Chicago. With the assist- ace of Harland Bartholemew and Associates of St. Louis, one f the highest authorities on zoning in the nation, the ommission is making a land-use map and an analysis of oning conditions. It is also revising the zoning codes. hese activities could result in greatly improved housing or the city. Secondly, in its capacity as Board of Zoning ppeals the Commission acted to restrict further industrial xpension in a controversy over a proposed addition to the lant of the General American Transportation Corporation. ertainly, unless positive steps are taken to improve ousing conditions, the city will become more and more the ite of industries and less and less the place of homes.
Chapter// @vi
died 19 61 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
The Calumet Region, in the center of which East Chicago is located, is the heavy industry part of the Chicago metro- politan area. As this chapter will show, the various plants in East Chicago are interdependent with other plants in the Calumet Region: All of these plants have developed because of Chicago's emergence as the metropolis for the agricul-" .tural upper Mississippi Valley so the industrial development of East Chicago is a part of the industrial development of Chicago.
The industries about which East Chicago grew were established here because the location was one which promised profitable operation to the owners.(The following explana- tion by one of its executives for the establishment of the United States Refining Company in 1904| is typical.
"Prior to locating in this city the company made an exhaustive survey of practically every location in the United States for TJ the purpose of determining the most advan- tageous; point at which to locate a lead refinery. This survey gave special cogni- En. zance relative to geographical location; as to source of supply for their raw ma- terials used and to the best markets for their products. Such elements as railroad and transportation facilities for the pur- pose of securing raw materialswandathe distribution of the finished products, a reliable fuel and water supply and the proximity of the proper type of labor re- quired were all given special considera- tion. From this exhaustive survey the City of East Chicago was decided upon as the most ideal point possessing all the above requirements.
Among the advantages East Chicago factory-owners derive from its nearness to Chicago are the advantages of transpor- tation. East Chicago is served directly by five of the
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trunk line railroads built to connect Chicago with the Eas Through the three belt lines which tap all of the twent four trunk lines entering Chicago, shippers of East Chica gain easy access to a quick routing of freight for all par of this country and to various points in Canada and Mexi as well. In addition, the Chicago rate base applies shipments of all commodities from East Chicago to pract cally every point in the United States and many points Canada and Mexico. This gives them the advantage of t cheaper through rate instead of having to pay the high freight charges formed by combining two local rates. Ea Chicago also has the advantage of extremely low rates on a commodities it ships to the thousands of industries locat within the Chicago "Switching District, " comprising abo 600 square miles.
With the development of the automobile, highways ha become quite important bearers of merchandise. U. S. 12 al 20, two of America's most heavily travelled arteries, par through East Chicago. They are important for the traff they bear from Canada, Detroit, the west coast of Michigan Ohio, and the eastern states. Much of this traffic consis of local and long-distance freight trucks and transcontine tal bus lines to and from Chicago. Three other main cros country highways, U. S. 6, U. S. 30, and U. S. 41, pass ne the city.
Chicago's growing importance as an air center mak available to East Chicago all the advantages that accr from air transportation.
Another system of transportation, vital to Ea Chicago, is the network of pipe lines which carry a cons tas stream of petroleum to the refineries and supplies of r fined products to the distribution points.
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