JOHN A. ROCHE, Mayor of Chicago. HiSTOHY The Chicago Police FEOM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE COMMUNITY TO THE PRESENT TIME, UNDER AUTHORITY OK THE MAYOR AND SUPERINTENDENT OF THE FORCE. BY joh:n J. rLi:N^]sr, ASSISTED BY JOHN E. WILKIE. To Benefit the Policemen's Benevolent Association. ILLUSTRATED. CHICAGO: UNDER THE AUSPICES 01" THE POLICE BOOK FUND. 1887. COPYRIGHT, 1887, CHICAGO POLICE BOOK FUND. MANUFACTURED BY W. B. CONKEY, CHICAGO. C4 F7^ ©0 0f it»lj0, in tl^e pa9i, ^crt»et» tlje (l5artren ®itH «a faithfully glefe»tireb ^ev 00 ^er0icall»j" Hllj0, in tije $Ire0jent, ^tatch ©uev ^er tuitl^ ^eal0U0 ©are— ©hift '^i»t0trjj i0 ^eMcatei» ivi88:3G2G INTRODUCTION. Let me say at the outset that the preparation of this work was undertaken with a very evenly-balanced mix- ture of diffidence and confidence. Had the great fire of October, 1871, resulted only in the destruction of buildings, we would look, almost in vain; for traces of it to-day. The black and desolate track which marked the wake of that calamitous and awful conflagration is hidden beneath a New Chicago; the memory of our people is becoming dimmed and confused regarding its course and boundary, and the marvelous, almost miraculous recovery of the city from this terrible blow has reconciled our citizens to the event, dread- ful as it was, and heart-rending as were the incidents which surrounded it. The buildings destroyed have been replaced by others more substantial, more beautiful. The fortunes lost have been recovered in so many cases that the excep- tions are not remarked. The conglomerate mass of melted iron, shattered granite, pulverized brick, powdered glass and smouldering merchandise, which covered like a hideous pall the once beautiful district, on the memorable morning of Oct. 10, in the hands of Providence fertilized the soil, and prepared it for the golden harvests which were to fol- low. But the fire destroyed many things which can never be replaced, among them the official records of the city and county — an irreparable loss in many respects, a loss that will be felt more and more as the years roll by, and that will be regretted most, perhaps, by those who, like myself, VI INTRODUCTION. undertake to write any portion of the history of this re- markable city. For with the loss of these records the very basis upon which history should properly stand — the writ- ten archives of the past — was swept away. Knowledge of this fact made me diffident, inspired me with dread lest my ability and energy, such as they are, should prove unequal to the task of penetrating successfully through and beyond the smoke and confusion of those Oc- tober days. Whatever facts could be obtained must be gath- ered from the remembrances of old citizens, from various early historical sketches, from documents and prints in pos- session of the Historical Society, from the ante-fire direc- tories and newspaper files, from reminiscences contributed to the press since 1871, and from miscellaneous contribu- tions to local history, in manuscript and print, widely scat- tered through the homes, book stalls and libraries of the city and State. The confidence I felt was inspired by the hearty expres- sion of good will, the kind assistance volunteered, the valu- able information cheerfully given on all sides. It was my aim — how well carried out the reader must judge — to make this history of the Chicago police one that could be relied upon for all time to come as covering the period of which it treats, accurately and honestly. To carry out this intention I have spared no pains to obtain the most reliable and full- est information. I have exercised all the ingenuity of which I am possessed in an earnest endeavor to arrive at facts. Although this volume is written with special reference to the part which the police have played in the history of Chicago during the past fifty years, it would be neither pos- sible nor advisable to separate their work altogether from that performed by other departments of the city government, nor to isolate it from the material and social progress of the city, which they have to so large an extent contributed in strengthening. A history of our police must, if it be a triie INTRODUCTION. Vll one, deal with every interest that is dependent for existence upon peace and good order — and what human interest isn't dependent upon those two conditions ? In the preparation of this volume I have had the assist- ance of Mr. John E. Wilkie, of the Chicago Trihime, whose contributions have added greatly to its worth. The detec- tive and patrol services have been placed under his especial charge, as his ability to handle these branches of the sub- ject was not only recognized by myself but by the heads of the police department. Every means of obtaining reliable and official informa- tion, when necessary, have been placed in the hands of Mr. Wilkie and myself by the Superintendent of Police and his officers and men. The Historical Society has afforded much valuable information, through the courtesy of its sec- retary, Mr. Hager; Librarian Poole, of the Public Library, has kindly opened the way for the examination of such au- thorities as that institution possesses ; the scrap books of private individuals; such written history as exists — every- thing within reach that could throw a light upon the history of the Chicago police force have been carefully collected and examined, and it is hoped that the compilation herewith presented to the public may be thought worthy of the sub- ject with which the volume deals. I have just laid down a weather-beaten, moth-eaten, curi- ous old volume written by one Joseph Pembroke, " A Gen- tleman Traveller," and printed in London in 1778. It tells of the writer's experiences in London and the continental cities, and three or four of its chapters are devoted to what might be called an inquiry into the police organizations of the great centers of population in Europe — if such a thing as police organization, as we understand the term, then ex- isted. Macaulay and other English historians, De Quincy. Dickens and other English writers, have pictured London to us as it was during the last and previous centuries, Till INTRODUCTION. What Pembroke tells us is not only confirmatory of the stories already familiar to most of us, but gives us in addi- tion a very clear and striking view of daily occurrences in the British capital, sach as would find their way these days, under the head of police news, into the newspapers. It is only at very rare intervals now that the crime of garroting is committed in any populous community. In Lon- don little more than a hundred years ago it was a crime of nightly occurrence. Highway robbery within the shadow of St. Paul's was no uncommon act of daring, even though the punishment was fixed at death, with or without some species of refined torture. Ladies and gentlemen returning from the theater, or a private gathering had their " chairs " or carriages stopped, pistols pointed at their heads, and were compelled to deliver their money to some city Dick Turpin. Members of the British parliament going home after a late sitting, were met by highwaymen and compelled to hand over their purses without delay. Members of the nobility, and even princes of the blood royal, were frequently ac- costed by armed robbers in their gardens or on the public roads, and subjected to the same painful and expensive hu- miliation. It was all a man's life was worth to venture out after dark. In some sections of the city, and close to the very center of business activity, people were murdered for their money in broad daylight; after nightfall the cry of "Robbers! — help!" was heard on all sides, and received but little atten- tion. People of means were usually accompanied by an armed guard consisting of from one to half a dozen men. Fre- quently the robbers overpowered the guard, took the master as a hostage, and refused to give him up until his relatives or friends paid the price of his liberty. House breaking became a regular branch of trade. It was the constant aim of people of wealth to hide all knowl- edge of their means from their neighbors, for should it be- INTRODUCTION. IX come known that they possessed either money or valuables, a visit from burglars inevitably followetl. And these house breakers were always ready to shed blood if their mission proved or threatened to prove disappointing. Like the highwayman their challenge " Your money or your life!" meant just exactly what it said. Thousands of people did succeed, of course, in deceiving others regarding their means, and thousands of people aA'oided the garroter and the highway man by keeping out of their way, or by chance or good luck, but highway rob- bery and burglary were not the worst features of life in London under the condition of thinsfs then existinsr. Women and young girls were abducted on the streets, oftentimes by the debauched young aristocrats, who rode or walked rough shod over all the rights of the common people. Assaults of the most abominable, the most atrocious character, were of every day occurrence. Sometimes, when the family of the woman or girl, who had been thus shamefully and brut- ally treated, was one of more than ordinary consequence, public indignation would assume the form and substance of a mob, and the mob would change its character three or four times before the military had succeeded in scattering it. It had its origin in the claim of some respected citizens who felt that they had been outraged; it attracted the idlers and roughs of the city, it was swollen by underground crim- inals, pickpockets, garroters and highway men, it was fin- ally, perhaps, augmented by political malcontents bent upon revolution — it usually ended, almost invariably ended, in doing a vast amount of injury to the persons and property of innocent persons, without obtaining any satisfaction from, or doing any harm to the guilty ones. Riots were periodical. Disturbances were almost per- petual. Only when the military were in possession of a district could it be said that peace prevailed. But the mili- tary while suppressing the criminals, and the rioters were oftentimes a greater affliction than a blessing. Commanded X INTRODUCTION. by dissolute officers, and composed of soldiers who had con- tracted all the vices prevalent in their own and foreign lands — frequently hired mercenaries — they respected no private rights, and exacted from the unfortunate people, conditions no less revolting than those which they denied the criminals they had just succeeded in displacing. In Amsterdam there was even less pretense on the part of the municipal government to protect the lives and prop- erty of the people. London had its " watchmen," often brave, generally faithful, but without discipline or number sufficient to cope with the criminal and lawless elements of a great city. In Amsterdam, for years one of the great com- mercial centers of Europe, a rival of London, Paris and Vienna, every man took care of himself, and to use an old saying, the devil took the hindmost. There garroting, highway robbery, burglary, and every species of crime known or unknown in our days, were ram- pant. Murders, assassinations, assaults on the public streets and quays were every day affairs. The merchant on his way to the Bourse was armed with a sword or pistol. Over the desk of the banker was suspended a blunderbus, not for ornament, but for use at a moment's notice. People wore their money in belts fastened around their waists next to the skin, or buried it in their cellars. The aristocrats never appeared on the streets save accompanied by guards. The general pursuit of gain — the desire to acquire wealth — alone prevented society from falling to pieces. People mis- trusted each other, and it was impossible to tell whether the gentleman who sat next to one in the theater, at the cofifee house or in the church, made his living legitimately or by pointing the persuasive muzzle of a pistol at his fellow citi- zen after dark. In Madrid, in Vienna, in Naples, at Rome, the same con- dition of things existed. It is hardly necessary to go into details with regard to life in Paris during the eighteenth century. This city was one of the first in Europe to attempt INTRODUCTION. XI police regulation. She got no neanir to the desired end, however, than the establishment of a very crude, half mili- tary, half civic organization, under governmental care, known then as now as the gens d'armes. That it proved to be inadequate, insufficient, incapable, need not be said. No such sickening crimes, no such atrocious barbarities, no such inhuman cruelties as stained the history of France during the last century would have been possible had there existed in Paris a police organization such as we find in most of the large cities of the world to-day — an organization that would have throttled crime before it developed into anarchy. In Paris for half a century before the revolution there was little regard for private rights. The city had grown to vast proportions. The people had gradually shaken off the dread their fathers felt for the noblesse. Feudalism was dying out, and with it all respect for authority. As in other populous centers, only to a greater degree in Paris, all the old forces that had held society together were weakening, losing their hold upon the masses, and none of the new forces, that came in to take their places later on, had made- their appearance. Humanity had been held in the iron grip of tyranny and despotism — that grip was relaxing under the pressure of an ever-expanding intellectual growth, and when at last it was compelled to let go altogether, there was noth- ing to hold in check the passions or proclivities of a free people. Paris was the theatre upon the stage of which was enacted the greater part of the bloody tragedy that filled the civilized world with horror. In the hands of a soldiery as little inclined to submit to discipline as the people were to submit to law, the French capital during the revolutionary epoch, or from the meeting of the States General to the triumph of the Convention, was a community of lawless, desperate, uncontrollable people. There was no civil power capable of checking crime or preserving the peace, for it was not thought possible in those days, nor for many years afterward, that police were better qualified to deal with muni- XH INTRODUCTION. cipal disturbances than military organizations, whether regulars or militiamen, regiments of the Grand Army or battalions of the gens d'armes. But time and experience have proved to be wonderful instructors in this as in every other particular. Louis Napo- leon discovered for France what Sir Robert Peel discovered for England, that a good constabulary had come to be the mainstay of peace and order in every community. To-day Paris has one of the finest police organizations of any city in the world, and the " Peeler " organization which Sir Robert substituted for the incapables who existed under Charles the First's organization of 1640, is the pride of every Englishman. The German government, with all the regard it holds for strictly military development, has planted in every one of its large and populous cities, a police system which is the admiration of visitors from other lands, so per- fect is it in even the simplest details. Austria, too, from Vienna to Buda Pesth, has her police officers, uniformed and equipped so much like our own that it would be difficult VD distinguish a difference between them. Ev^ry progressive government on earth has given close attention to the organization and discipline of police within the past twenty-five years. As home guards they have proved to be far more effective and trustworthy than sol- diers, feeling their responsibility to their fellow-citizens more keenly, and being themselves interested deeply in the peace and welfare of the communities to which they are at- tached. It is not necessary to go over to Europe in order to learn how deplorable were the conditions surrounding life in large cities before the present admirable police organiza- tions were brought into being. New York, Boston, Balti- more, and some of the younger cities of this country suf- fered under the "watchman" era from the depredations of thieves, the villainies of highwaymen, and the riotous ex- cesses of mobs proportionately as much as any cities in INTRODUCTION. Xiii Europe. Even Chicago, before our present police system went into effect, in the days when " constables " and town " marshals " held full swing, had reason to feel that hu- manity needed at times a stronger curb. There were timet when mobs met mobs, when peaceable citizens were com^ pelled to take up arms to save their lives and defend theii* property even here. But those days are happily ended* There is no longer any necessity for mob law in Chicago. Recent occurrences have demonstrated that the vicious classes cannot maintain themselves outside of their holes. To exist here at all they must keep quiet. For years it was held tliat as the policeman's duty did not extend beyond the apprehension of law breakers and criminals, and the preservation of the peace, he was a person inferior in every respect to the soldier who shouldered a musket and went to the war, or to the militiaman who shouldered a musket without calculatiuij that he would ever have to make any other use of it. In New York city, in the riots of 1863 and 1877 ; in Balti- more during the "plug ugly'' disturbances; in St. Louis dur- ing the riot of 1859; in Pittsburg during the riot of 1877 ; in Chicago during the riot of 1877, on the Black road and at the Haymarket in 1886 — in many cities, under many cir- cumstances — the police of the United States have marched with measured tread into the very jaws of death and proved themselves not only to be peace preservers but warriors, fearless as any soldiers on any field. They have proved that no danger appalls them, no ap- pearances frighten them. Whether in a hand to hand grapple in a dark alley, with the knife of the city thug glis- tening ere it makes its deadly plunge, or face to face with a mob bent on murder, or yet, shattered in limb by the flying missiles from an exploded bomb — wherever they are, under whatever circumstances we may find them — in whatever peril we may see them — they are still as heroic as any sol- diers that ever faced ap enemy, and their heroism is all the XIV INTRODUCTION. more ennobling for the reason that their greatest deeds of valor are not seen of men, are not accomplished under the inspiration of patriotic cheers, are not destined to bring down the light of glory on their heads — are done simply "in the discharge of their duty." In the preparation of this work I have consulted, and I cheerfully acknowledge the assistance of the following: Judge Catons's Address before the Chicago Historical Soci- ety; Blanchard's Conquest of the Northwest; the Fergus Historical Publications ; Brown's History of Illinois; Bross' History of Chicago; Colbert's History of Chicago; Col- bert and Chamberlain's Great Confiagration; Sheahan and Upton's Chicago — Its Past, Present and Future; M. L. Ahern's Political History of Cliicago; Paul Hull's The CJiicago Piot; the files of the daily papers ; pamphlets and other material in possession of the Chicago Historical So- ciety, and I have endeavored to give credit wherever it belonged. JOHN J. FLINN. South Evanston, November, 1887. f- '-: /^ CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK. Page Chaptek I.— From the Discovery of the Chicago Portage by Mar- quette and Joliet to the Arrival of John Kinzie— A Description of Chicago Before Chicago Existed— The Foresight of the First Explorers— Building the Fort— The Indians' First Sight of a Schooner— Chicago's First Police Force— The Eomance of the McKenzie Girls— Kinzie' s Remarkable Career— The Process of Evolution -.. 1 Chapter II.— The Events Leading up to and Culminating in the Massacre of Ft. Dearborn — England's Treatment of the Young Eepublic— The Anglo-French War— Embargos on Commerce and Non-interference— The War of 1812— Tecumseh and the Pottawatomies— The Raid of the Winnebagos— Evacuation of the Fort — The Massacre — Early Heroism . 18 Chapter III.— From 1829 to 1837— The Last Attempt of the Indians to Drive the White Invaders Back— Chicago Surveyed and Platted as a Village— The Village Government— Town Organ- ization Under a Board of Trustees — Town and Police Consta- bles-One of the First Recorded Police Cases— Primitive Method of Dealing with a Thief— Incorporation of the City— The First ffigh Constable 40 Chapter IV.— From 1837 to 1854— The New Charter and its Provis- ions for a Police Service — Rather a Weak Force -A Satire on the Constabulary — Samuel J. Lowe and M. Huntoon — The Days of Oscar Smith, Phillip Dean, Ambrose Burnham, Luther Nich- ols and Darius Knights — Crime in the Young City — The Mob- bing of Stephen A. Douglas 53 Chapter V. — From 1854 to 1858— The Police Service Grows in Im- portance — Decline and Fail of Know-Nothingism — The Cele- brated " Lager Beer " Riot— Race and Religious Prejudice — De- struction of " The Sands " — An Anti-Slavery Mob — Hard Times in the Young City — Sufferings of the Poor and Frightful In- crease of Crime— The Administrations of Mayors Boone, Dyer and Wentworth Reviewed _ 70 XVI CONTENTS. Page. Chapt'jr VI.— From 1858 to 1866— The Days of Leather Badges- Mayor Haines Introduces Uniforms — Jacob Rehm, Iver Law- son — Salaries of Police Officers — A Full Roster of the Force in 1859— Wentworth's Second Term and its Eccentricities — Estab- lishment of the Board of Police — The Entire Force Discharj^red — Bradley and Nelson — Familiar Names Appearing — The War Epoch Reviewed _ 88 Chapter VII.— From 1866 to the Close of 1871— The Growth of the Service under the Boards of Police — Divided Duties and Their Results — William Turtle, Jacob Rehm and W. W. Kennedy as Superintendents of the Force — New Sub-Stations Established — Wicked Chicago Before the Fire — The Police During the Great Conflagration — Heroic and Unselfish Conduct — Lieut.-General Phil Sheridan in Charge — Citizen Patrol Parties — End of the Military Occupation and Election of Joseph Medill 110 Chapter VIIL— From 1871 to 1877— The Rise of Chicago From Her Ashes — Joseph Medill's Prophecy — His Administration— Where He Made a Mistake— The Fanatical Party Exposes its Head Again and it is Again Crushed — Troiable in the Police Board — Washburn's Unfitness for the Superintendency — Colvin's Elec- tion—Jacob Rehm— M. C. Hickey — A Black Horizon 132 Chapter IX.— The Year 1877— Outbreak of the Great Railroad Strike in the East — The Condition of Affairs in Chicago at the Time — Hard Times for Mechanics and Laborers — Was the Fire a Blessing or a Curse? — The Decline of Wages and Degen- eracy of the Working Classes — Why the City was Ripe for a Riot — The Outbreak in Chicago — Mistakes of the Authorities — Breaking up Mass Meetings — The Randolph Street Affair — Trouble a': McCormick's — Lieut. Callahan's Gallant CJonduct at the Round House 153 Chapter X.— The Year 1877— Progress and Finish of the Riot— The Numerous Conflicts on the Halsted Street Viaduct— A Warlike Display — The Military, Volunteers and Police — Bloody Work Between Twelfth Street and Archer Avenue — Dixon at the Front — A Heroic Boy — The Turner Hall Episode — A Speedy Restora- tion of Peace — The Military Regime in the Department 177 Chapter XL— Effect of the Riot of '77 on Popular Opinion Regard- ing the Police Force — Trying to get an Increase — Superintendent Seavey's Brief Career and Untimely Death — Simon O'Donnell as Chief What He is Credited With— McGarigle Takes Hold— His Management and Unfortunate Mistake— Austin J. Doyle's Ad- ministration— The Patrol Service — Increase of the Force— Fred- erick Ebersold and John Bonfield step iip Higher 202 CONTENTS. XVll Page. Chapter XII. — The Year 1885 — Communism, Socialism and An- archy — The Board of Trade Demonstration — Seditious Speeches and a Dist,'raoeful Procession— An Outrajje on the Street— Spread of Communistic Doctrines —The Great West Division Street-Car Riots — Boulield's Famous March— The Exciting? Scenes and Inci- dents on Madison Street — Socialistic Picnics and Processions — The Mottoes of the " Reds " — Approaching the Dreadful Culmin- ation 223 Chapter XIII.— The Year 1886— The Great Eight-hour Movement— The Influence of the Foreign-bom in American Industrial Affairs — Antagonism of the Anarchists to the Proposed Short- hour System — How They Fought the Movement — Parsons, Spies. Fielden. Schwab — Breeding Discontent — A Grand Opportunity for the Reds — Disgraceful Scene on Fifth Avenue — The McCor- mick Riot. - 252 Chapter XIV.— The Fourth of May, 1886— From Morning Until Night— The Outrages Committed by the Mobs in the Vicinity of Eighteenth Street and Center Avenue — Lively Work for the Po- licemen in the Anarchist Section — The " Revenge Circular" — Schwab's Incendiary Editorial and the Call for a Mass Meeting — Spies' Side of the Question — The Hay market Gathering— Why the Meeting Place'was Changed 279 Chapter XV.— The Fourth of May, 1886— How the Anarchists Planned to Entrap the Police — The Narrow Street with Alleyway Exits— The Haymarket Meeting— Speeches of Spies, Parsons and Fielden- The Inflammatory Remarks of the Latter— "Throt- tle the Law! Kill It! Scab It!"— Why Bonfield Finally Moved— The Bomb — What Happened Afterward 304 Chapter XVI. — Frederick Ebersold — Compared with Supt. Murray, of New York — His Early Struggles in the West— Determined to be a Soldier — Record of a Brave Volunteer and a Gallant Cap- tain — At Shiloh, Kenesaw, Vicksburg, and with Sherman on His March to the Sea — Return to Chicago — First Years in the Police Force — Steady Promotion — A Splendid Record. 324 Chapter XVII. — John Bonfield — An Advanced Member of the New School of Police Officers — A Man who Never Shirked a Duty — The Use of the Club during the Street-car Riot — Why Heads were Damaged — The Result Justified the Process — Bonfield in Private and Police Life — He Proved a Failure in Commercial Life — From Patrolman to Inspectorship 338 I Xviii CONTENTS. Page. Chapter XVIII.— The Year 1887— John A. Koche, Mayor of Chica- go — The Political Revolution that brought about His Election — A Man of Sleiiiug Qualities— The Police Staff-Officers — Captain Hubbard, of tiie Central Detail— Captain Buckley, of the First Precinct— Captain O'Douuell, of the Second Precinct — Captain Lewis, of the Third Precinct— Captain Hathaway, of the Fourth Precinct— Captain Schaack, of the Fifth Precinct 348 Chapter XIX.— The Detective Force— A Historical Review of this Branch of the Service — Its Chiefs from the Beginning — Detect- ive Work in Chicago— Lieutenants Steele and Slayton— Their Records — The Men who Comjjose the Detective Force at Pres- ent — Many Once Familiar Crimes Recalled — A Complete Roster of the Secret Service of the City - 36 iJ Chapter XX. — The Patrol Service— Peculiar Origin of a System Now Adopted by every Well-governed American City — An Idea put into Execution — Opposition of Many of the Men — Captain Bonfield Placed in Charge — The Devices of a Young Newspaper Man Solve a Problem — Growth and Satisfactory Working of the System — Its Application to the Twelfth Street District 397 Chapter XXL -The Patrol Service— The Practical Utility of the System Demonstrated by the Celebrated Bill Allen Case — His- tory of that Sensational Episode — The Killing of Officer Clar- ence Wright and Wounding of Officer Patrick Mulvihill — The Search for the Desperado — His Final Capture and Death — Re- markable Exhibition of Public Feeling — Further Progress of the System 408 Chapter XXIL— The Patrol Service— Character of the Men Em- ployed in the Signal Department — Why the Best Officers are Usually Selected for Wagon Duty — The Work Exacting in its Nature — Present Composition of the Force -Some Splendid Records Made by the Men — Many Great Criminal Cases in which they have Participated _. .- 418 Chapter XXIIL— The Police Department in the Autumn of 1887— Composition of the Force — Its Officers — The Mayor, the Super- intendent and Headquarters' Staff — The Inspector and His Assistants— Capt. Hubbard and His Lieutenants — The " Lake Street Squad " — Roster of the Day Force — Some Splendid Rec- ords—Biographical Sketches of the Men 451 Chapter XXIV.— The First Precinct, Captain William Buckley Commanding— The Old Armory and the New— The School of Nearly all the Ablest and Oldest Police Officers— History of the Station in which the Leading Policemen of Chicago have been CONTENTS. XIX * Page. Developed— Adversities of the Precinct — Burnt Down, Rebuilt, Moved. Refitted, Removed, but still " The Armory " and Head- quarters in Chicago's Police Geography — The Roster 478 Chapter XXY.— The Second Precinct, Capt. Simon O'Donnell Comuiandin<,'— The "Terror District" of other Days, now one of the Best Ro^nilated in the City— What the Gallant Pride of the Old Lake Street Squad has done for it— Simon O'Donnell and His Men— The Introduction of the Signal Service here— A Cap- tain who has been a Superintendent and who Stepped Back Cheerftilly to the Ranks 502 Chapter XXVI.— The Third Precinct, Captain Lyman Lewis Com- manding—One of the Old-Time Precincts and the most Ancient of our Stations— From the West Market Hall to the Present Handsome Edifice on Desplaines Street — Capt. Lyman Lewis and his Gallant Men— Memories of the Night of May 4 — Van Pelt's Handsome Picture — The West Lake and West Madison Street Districts — Biographies of Officers and Men in the Precinct 525 Chapter XXVIL— The Fourth Precinct, Captain Amos W. Hath- away Commanding — The West Chicago Avenue, North Avenue and Rawson Street Districts— Wonderful Growth in Population and Consequent Increase in Police Area — The Days of Sergeants Beadell and Briscoe — Captain Hathaway's Career — The Force one of the Best Organized in Chicago— Its Men and their Records — History of the Stations 541 Chapter XXVIII.— The Fifth Precinct, Captain Michael John Schaack Commanding — Early Days of Police Life on the "Nord Seite"— The Old North Market Hall and Huron Street Sta- tions—Max Kipley and Martin Quinn— Lieutenant Baus and the Bavarian Heaven — Lieutenant Lloyd at Webster Avenue — The Career of a Batallion of Good Men— Splendid Records 560 FREDERICK EBERSOLD, General Siipetintendent of Police. CHAPTER I. FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THE CHICAGO PORTAGE BY MARQUETTE AND JOLIET TO THE ARRIVAL OF JOHN KINZIE-A DESCRIPTION OF CHICAGO BEFORE CHICAGO EXISTED -THE FORESIGHT OF THE FIRST EXPLORERS -BUILDING THE FORT -THE INDIANS' FIRST SIGHT OF A SCHOONER -CHICAGO'S FIRST POLICE FORCE- THE ROMANCE OF THE McKENZIE GIRLS - KINZIE'S REMARKABLE CAREER -THE PROCESS OF EVOLUTION. In the beginning, that is to say, centuries after the last vestige of Aztec civilization had disappeared, when even the homes of the Mound Builders were crumbling into fine dust, and before the sun of European enlightenment had dawned upon the "flat heath, pierced by a small tranquil stream" — the destined site of this great city — there was nothing. Unless one would call some miles of soggy, desolate downs, relieved here and there by a clump of trees — oak, maple or perhaps •Cottonwood — dotted with miniature islands covered with swamp-reeds, and rising high and pyramidal above the surrounding waste of decayed and living weeds, with a murky stream, to which there were no apparent banks, crawl- ing through the tangle of useless vegetation, losing itself now and then in the marsh, and finally emptying its dirty waters into the lake — unless one would call this something, there was nothing. Nothing certainly to charm the eye of one Avho might approach it from the West, nothing to captivate the pioneer, the traveler or the adventurer who viewed it from the South or North. Where there was not swamp there was sand; when a dense fog was not rising from the midst of the dreary waste, shutting out at times even the mid-day sun, 2 THE CHICAGO POLICE. clouds of finely pulverized sand from the lake shore blew across the marsh, tlescending again upon the weeds and grasses and making the picture more desolate and repelling than ever. Perhaps it was providential, perhaps accidental, at any rate it was lucky that Marquette and Joliet, the original whito discoverers of Chicago, fell in with a band of Illinois Indi- ans who undertook to show them the Southern shores of the great lake, whose Northern waters they were already familiar with, for these Indians had told marvelous tales of the grandeur and beauty of the big water, and the lands that fringed its Southern banks. Otherwise the missionary explor- ers might have been tempted to turn back when they found themselves on the bosom of a stream, orreen with stacjnation and along whose sides nature appeared to be in one of the last stages of decomposition. The indomitable will which characterized these early discoverers, the high sense of duty which inspired them, sustained the good men in the task they had undertaken. They caoie to spread the light of Christianity among the Illinois, and nothing could hinder their progress save death. Up the Illinois then came Marquette, Joliet, their stout- hearted followers and dusky guides; into the Desplaines they plowed, finally through the Chicago riyer, out on the greenish waters of the lake. It was a beautiful September day in the year 1673, when Marquette and Joliet turning their boats about, directed their visions toward the shore. Rising above the graveled beach, upon which the wave- lets splashed and murmured, were long lines of sand-hills, sparkling against a back-ground of autumnal foliage, through which the setting sun penetrated, giving a golden tint to the turning leaves on oak and maple. Their view embraced the horse-shoe bend which to-day assists in form- ing the natural harbor of Chicago. Before them was the stream from which they had just emerged, trailing like a THE FIRST SETTLEMENT. 6 serpent through a white sandbar that stretched far out into the lake. The river's mouth was hospitable enou