LAKESIDE THE LAKESIDE FIRE MEMORIAL. THE LAKESIDE MEMORIAL OF THE BURNING OF CHICAGO, A. D. 1871. // '/ 777 ILL USTRA TIONS. CHICAGO: NIVERSITY IT BUSH l\<; COMPANY 1872. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by THE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ILLUSTRATIONS. CHICAGO BEFORE THE FIRE. FIRST HOUSE BUILT IN CHICAGO. CHICAGO WATER WORKS. FIELD, LEITER & Co.'s STORE. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. BOOKSELLERS' Row. SHERMAN HOUSE. PALMER HOUSE. DRAKE AND FARWELL BLOCK. COURT HOUSE. NEW ENGLAND AND UNITY CHURCHES. TRIBUNE BUILDING. CONTENTS. PART I. BEFORE THE FIRE. CHICAGO'S HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, AND ARCHITECTURE . J. W. Foster. . i OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE Charles Randolph. n OUR .tSTHETICAL DEVELOPMENT jf. B. Runnion. l8 PART II. BURNING OF THE CITY. DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT FIRE U'. S. Walker. 22 THE FLIGHT FOR LIFE H. R. Hobart. 40 PART III. AFTER THE FIRE. THE BURNT- OUT PEOPLE ; WHAT WAS DONE FOR THEM Andrew Shuman. 43 AMONG THE RUINS F. B. Wilkie. 50 RECONSTRUCTION W. A. Croffitt. 53 PART IV. THE LOSSES. REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY Elias Colbert. 58 COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS .... Frank Gilbert. 64 RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS . . E. O. Haven. 71 INSTITUTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, AND LITERATURE . . G. P. Upton. 76 PART V. THE FUTURE. WHAT REMAINS William Ah-in Barth-tt. 82 NEW CHICAGO - J. W. Foster. 83 SUPPLEMENTARY. THE FIRES OF HISTORY Egbert P helps. 86 SCIENCE OF THE NORTHWESTERN FIRES .... Elias Colbert. 90 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THK FIRE .... D. H. Wheeler. 96 APPENDIX. CHICAGO ANU THK RELIEF COMMITTEE . . . Sydney Hou-ani Gay. 103 THE LAKESIDE MEMORIAL THE BURNING OF CHICAGO. PART I. BEFORE THE FIRE. A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY ITS TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE. THE Conflagration of Chicago, October 8th and gih, Anno Dom- ini 1871, will form a memorable event in the future history not only of our own country but of the world ; and there- fore it is that we propose to embody in a permanent and accessible form for the benefit of the future annalist, the principal incidents connected with this tremendous event. This conflagration, in the amount of property consumed, is beyond the memory or example of ancient or modern times. Other great conflagrations, like those of London and of Moscow, swept away districts but imperfectly built, which subsequent enterprise beautified and adorned ; but this conflagration wiped out the most substantially -built and beautifully- adorned portion of the city structures, which in their solidity and in their ar- chitectural details commanded the ad- miration of every beholder. There are men yet living and in the prime of manhood, who saw the site of Chicago when it was but a wet prairie. They have seen its fairest portions laid in waste ; and they will live, very many of them, to see every trace of this waste obliterated. The same causes which led to the rapid growth of this city are still in operation ; and this conflagration, disastrous as it was, will prove but a temporary check in the development of the great metropolis of the Northwest. To comprehend the causes of the un- precedented growth of the city, and at the same time the magnitude of the dis- aster, it may not be deemed inopportune if we recur to her earlier history, and trace her progress, step by step, from small beginnings until she attained her late commanding position the fourth city in point of population, and the third city in point of commercial im- portance, in the United States. A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. As early as 1672, the French Jesuits had explored and mapped the whole of Lake Superior, and the upper portion of Lake Michigan then known as Lac des Illinois as far south as Green Bay. They had established themselves at various points, among which were the Mission de Ste. Marie de Sault; Mission du St. Esprit, at La Pointe ; Mission de St. Fr. Xavier, at the head of Green Bay ; and the Mission of St. Ignace, at the outlet of Lake Michigan, nearly opposite Mackinac, on the north shore of the lake.* At that time the English colonists skirted the Atlantic Coast from Florida to Nova Scotia, without penetrating far in the interior. Elliot, in his missionary zeal, had ex- plored only so far as Natick, six miles out of Boston ; the Connecticut Val- ley was still unoccupied. Among these Jesuit missionaries was James Marquette, a man of high cul- ture but of meek and lowly disposition, whose name is indelibly engraven in the annals of the Northwest. He was attached to the Mission of St. Ignace. In his intercourse with the savage tribes, he had heard of the existence of a great river to the west, whose banks were bordered by vast prairies over which roamed countless herds of buffalo. On the iyth of May, 1673, ac- companied by Joliet, with two canoes and five voyageurs, he embarked on a voyage to explore the great unknown river. Coasting along Green Bay to its head, then ascending the Fox River and descending the Wisconsin, one month after starting he beheld the mighty current of the Mississippi, on which he floated as far south as Arkan- sas. In returning, he paused at the mouth of the Illinois, and instead of proceeding on to the Wisconsin, as- cended the latter stream, taking the Des Plaines branch, by which he passed by an easy portage to the Chi- * To those interested in the early history of the Northwest, we commend the map entitled " Lac Svperievr et avtres lievx ou sont les Missions des Peres de la Compaigne de lesvs comprises sovs le le nom Dovtaovacs," published at Paris, 1672. cago River. Having reached Lake Michigan, he coasted along the west shore, and thus reached, after a canoe voyage of over 2,500 miles, the point of his embarkation. So cordial had been the reception of the good father among the tribes in habiting the valley of the Illinois, that he resolved to return and erect among them the standard of the Cross; and the next autumn (1674) he ar- ranged to carry out his design. It was late in October when, with a canoe and two voyageurs, he embarked. Reach- ing the mouth of the Chicago River, he ascended that stream for about two leagues, where he built a hut and passed the winter. Game was abun- dant ; and from his hut, buffalo, deer, and turkeys were shot. Originally of a frail constitution, this voyage had told fearfully upon the good father. Cold winds swept the lake, and not- withstanding the camp fires by night, his limbs were chilled. A hemorrhage, to which he was subject, returned with increased violence; and he predicted that this voyage would be his last. With the return of spring, his disease relented; when he descended to the Indian village below Ottawa, and there celebrated among the barbaric tribes the mysteries of the Christian faith. A few days after Easter, he returned to Lake Michigan, where he embarked for Mackinac, passing along the great sand-dunes which line its head, and thence along its eastern margin to where a small stream discharges itself into the great reservoir, south of the promontory known as the "Sleeping Bear." Marquette was so far debilita- ted that he stretched himself in the bottom of the canoe, and took little heed of what was passing. The warm breath of spring revived him not ; and the song of birds fell listless upon his ears. Here he desired to land ; and his attendants bore him tenderly to the shore, and raised over him a bark hut. He was aware that his time was come. Calmly he gave directions as to his mode of burial ; craved the forgiveness A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. of his companions, if in aught he had offended them; administered to them the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; and thanked God that he was permit- ted to die in the wilderness, a witness of His loving kindness. This event happened May 18, 1675. Upon the banks of a stream which bears his name, they dug his grave and consigned his remains to the earth ; but this was not to be his final resting- place. A year or two afterwards a party of Ottawas disinterred his re- mains, placed them in a birchen box, and conveyed them to St. Ignace, where, amid the priests, neophytes, and traders assembled to do them honor, they were consigned to a place beneath the floor of the chapel in which the good missionary had so often officiated. Thus, then, Marquette was the first white occupant of Chicago, and that occupancy dates back nearly two hun- dred years ago. But for the calamity which has befallen her, it would be proper for Chicago, in 1873, to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of her discovery, with bonfires and illumina- tions, and other evidences of public rejoicing ; to go to St. Ignace and gather up and transport, with pious care, the ashes of Marquette, and erect over them the most elaborate mauso- leum.* La Salle followed in the footsteps of Marquette. Late in the fall of 1670, in four canoes, he passed the mouth of the Chicago River, circled the head of the lake, and landed at St. Joseph, on the opposite shore, whence he ascended that stream to what is now South Bend ; and by the portage of the Kankakee, then called Theakiki, or Hankiki, he entered the Illinois Valley. In the fall of 1 68 1, he passed by the Chicago * The name " Chicago " is a modified spelling of " Chekagou " ; but this name was applied to a dif- ferent stream from that of the Chicago River. In the map by Franquelin (1684) of " La Salle's Col- ony on the Illinois," the present Chicago River is called " Cheagoumeinan " ; and " Chekagau " is applied to a small stream heading near the lake and entering the Des Plaines or " Peanghichia " River, above the debouchure of the Kankakee, and corresponding with Jackson Creek. portage en route to the Mississippi ; and while this portage was repeatedly used by his followers, no permanent settlement was made at the mouth of the river. By the treaty of Fontainbleau, in 1762, the vast territory east of the Mis- sissippi passed into the possession of the British Government ; and the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, transferred this country to the dominion of the United States. In 1804, the Government established a military post at the mouth of the Chi- cago River, which was dignified by the name of Fort Dearborn ; and a single company of infantry was deemed a sufficient garrison. In 1812, on the declaration of war, the Indians gath- ered about the fort and showed unmis- takable signs of hostility. Captain Heald, then in command, foreseeing that his supplies might be cut off, and availing himself of discretionary or- ders, undertook to retreat with his little command to Detroit, three hundred miles distant ; but he had proceeded less than two miles along the lake shore, when he was ambuscaded, and only three of his party escaped mas- sacre. In 1816, the fort was rebuilt and gar- risoned by two companies of infantry. It was not until the close of the Black - Hawk War, in 1832, that the region of Northern Illinois and Southern Wis- consin was thrown open to settlement. Emigration soon began to flow in with an uninterrupted tide, which has con- tinued up to the present hour. A ham- let clustered around Fort Dearborn, which took the name of Chicago. As late as 1837, flour was shipped from Ohio to supply the infant settlement ; and in 1839 ti 16 fi rst shipment of wheat, amounting to i ,678 bushels, was sent from this port, which is now the world's great market for breadstuffs and provisions. In 1840, Chicago contained a population of 4,470 ; in 1850, 28,269 '< in 1860, 109,263; in 1870, 298,977; and at the time of the fire hardly less than 350,000 souls. A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. Nothing could have been more unin- viting than the original site of the city. Ridges of shifting sands bordered the lake shore ; while inland, and stretch- ing beyond the range of vision, was a morass supporting a rank growth of blue -joint grass, with here and there a clump of jack oaks. Through this morass wound a sluggish river, only flushed by the spring and fall freshets; and adjacent to its banks were pools of water, which were the resort of wild fowl. The river's mouth was barred by shifting sands, but the bar once passed, deep water was found within. For a mile its course was east and west, when it branched into two forks, run- ning northerly and southerly. This stream, so uninviting, forms the pres- ent harbor of Chicago, and separates the city into three divisions the North, South, and West. The watershed be- tween Lake Michigan and the Des- Plaines River a tributary of the Illinois was only eight feet in height; and during flood time, communication could FIRST HOUSE BUILT IN CHICAGO BY JOHN KINZIE, IN 181$, ON LAKE SHORE, NORTH OF RIVER. be made in a canoe without disem- barking. A well-marked channel can be traced, through which, up to com- paratively recent times, a portion of the waters of Lake Michigan escaped to the Gulf of Mexico. Such were the topographical features of Chicago forty years ago. How wonderfully have they been transformed ! The city com- menced its growth upon the original surface ; and so saturated was the soil with water, that cellars and basements were from necessity dispensed with. The streets in many places presented an oozy mass of mud, and here poles were thrust down bearing placards " no bottom," The more frequented thoroughfares were planked, and when driven over the planks were subjected to a churning motion which caused the ooze to spurt up through the crevices. The gutters at the sides were filled with stagnant water, whose surface was cov- ered with a green scum, the appropri- ate nidus of the cholera and other pestilential diseases. So fatal were these pestilences, and so multifarious their forms, that medical terms were exhausted, and "canal" cholera was applied to designate a peculiar and fatal form of that disease; and the victims were left by the roadsides near Bridgeport, where they remained for a long time festering in the sun, the citizens being afraid to approach the corpses, lest the disease be communi- cated to their persons, and thus propa- gated through the city. A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. The first impulse communicated to Ihe growth of Chicago, was the passage, by the State Legislature, of an act, January i8th, 1825, for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal; and in aid thereof, of the passage of an act of Congress, Llnrch cd, 1827, granting to the State alternate sections of the public lands, embracing a zone of six miles wide on either side of the projected canal; but it was not until 1836 that the work was entered upon, nor was it completed until 1848. In 1831, Cook County, embracing Chicago, was organized. In the spring of 1833, Congress made an appropria- tion of $30,000 for improving the har- bor; and that same year a post office was established John S. C. Hogan, who occupied a "variety store" on South Water street, being the first postmaster. The mail was brought weekly, on horseback, from Niles, Michigan. That same year witnessed the cession of all the lands in Northern Illinois, amounting to about 20,000,000 acres, by the Pottawotamies, who re- moved farther westward. Chicago was incorporated as a town by a nearly unanimous vote ; and to show the number of voters, it may be said that twelve were in favor of and only one against the proposed measure. In 1834, the poll list of citizens amounted to one hundred and eleven, and the amount of taxes reached forty- eight dollars and ninety cents; but this being inadequate for municipal pur- poses, the trustees resolved to borrow sixty dollars for the opening and im- provement of streets. The next year, however, grown bolder by the success of the former loan, the treasurer, " on the faith of the president and trustees," was authorized to borrow $2,000, at a rate of interest not exceeding ten per cent., and payable in twelve months. In 1837, Chicago became incorpo- rated as a city, and William B. Ogden was chosen as its first mayor. From that time to the present, the history of thje growth of the city becomes too complex to be traced, except in a com- prehensive form. A series of public improvements was devised and exe- cuted, mainly under the direction of Mr. Chcsbrough, as City Engineer, which made Chicago one of the pleas- antest and healthiest cities in the Union. A system of sewage was established for underground drainage, which re- quired that the original surface in many places be raised eight feet. This change of grade involved the necessity of rais- ing many of the largest structures in those streets, adjacent to the river. Such structures as the Tremont and Briggs Houses, the Marine Bank, and in fact entire blocks, were lifted up, with little or no interruption to business. Thus the city became thoroughly drained, the houses admitted of cellars, and the streets became dry and solid. The mouth of the river, in 1816, ac- cording to the statement of Colonel Long, of the Topographical Engineers, was at Madison Street. It was a rippling stream, ten or fifteen yards wide, and only a few inches deep, flowing over a bed of sand. In the summer of 1833, the Government entered upon the im- provement of the harbor, or rather commenced the construction of one. The north pier was extended a short distance lakeward, a lighthouse estab- lished, and an embankment thrown across the old channel to divert the water to the new course. An unusual freshet during the next spring tore out the sand and left a practicable chan- nel into the river. The pier has from time to time been extended, until now it reaches a distance of about three thousand feet ; and yet the problem of getting rid of the shifting sands thrown up by every northeaster, and leaving an open ship channel into the river, is far from being solved. The river and its branches afford nearly fifteen miles of wharfage in the heart of the city ; and the Dock Com- pany, on the North Side, along the lake shore, have constructed works which add immensely to the harbor accommodations. The dock line is seven and one -half feet above low A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. water mark. Thus, then, a tideless river and a nearly level plain afford almost unequalled facilities for receiv- ing and distributing the immense freights which accumulate here. To supply the city with pure water, Lake Michigan was resorted to as an unfailing reservoir. In the old works established on the North Side, the wa- ter was taken out near the shore. There were times . when the current of the river, reeking with the sewage of the city, the offal of slaughter houses, and the slops of distilleries, was borne against this portion of the shore ; and the drainage from the cemetery, popu- lous with the dead, was also in this direction. Besides, during the winter, multitudes of small fishes would collect about the strainers and gain admission to the pipes, so that when the faucets at the houses were turned, out would come scores of minnows, some alive and some in various stages of decom- position. A violent northeaster would so roil the water that it became neces- sary to filter it. To obviate all these inconveniences, the novel, but as the result proved perfectly practicable, idea was conceived of drawing the water through a tunnel from the lake two miles distant from the shore. A BUILDINGS OF THE CHICAGO WATER WORKS KRKCTKD 1867. A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. shaft was sunk on the land side to the depth of twenty -six feet, and a " crib," pentagonal in form, forty feet in height and ninety -eight and one -half feet in diameter, was floated to the site in the lake and there anchored. It was then filled with stone and made to settle to its bed. An iron cylinder, nine feet in diameter, occupies the centre of the structure, and penetrates from the water- line to the depth of sixty -four feet, and thirty -one feet below the lake bed, where the tunnel commences. This is all the way excavated in a tough blue clay which offered no serious obstacles in the progress of the work. Its ^di- mensions are five feet two inches in heighth, by five feet wide ; and it is lined with two courses of brick laid in cement. Its capacity, under a head of two feet, is 19,000,000 gallons daily; under a head of eight feet, 38,000,000 ; and under a head of eighteen feet, 57,000,000. A tower, one hundred and thirty feet in height, contains an iron cylinder three feet in diameter, through which the water is forced by powerful machinery, and thence by its own pressure is distributed through the mains to the different parts of the city. Thus, at an expense of about two and one -half millions of dollars, Chicago has secured an ample supply of water, always pure, cool, and sparkling. The river, as we ha Tr e seen, was originally in the nature .'f a lagoon rather than a running stream. Into this river was discharged one - half of the sewage of the city, and upon its banks were numerous packing houses and distilleries, whose refuse added to the pestiferous contents. The color of its water varied all the way from inky blackness to rich chocolate brown ; and the nasal organs had no difficulty in recognizing as many distinct stenches as Coleridge did in the River Rhine at Cologne. To remove this nuisance, which had become unbearable, the city, under authority of an act of the Legis- lature, passed February 16, 1865, pro- ceeded on the plan of cutting down the canal for twenty - six miles to at least six feet below the low water-level of the lake. This plan was completed only last year, at a cost of about $3,000,000 ; and a current of pure lake water now flows through the city and discharges itself into the Mississippi, through the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers. The intercourse between the three divisions of the city, up to a recent time, had been effected wholly by swing -bridges, which at intervals of two blocks spanned the river, whose average width is less than two hundred feet. These bridges were a serious impediment to navigation ; and their almost continuous turning proved an equally serious impediment to vehicles and pedestrians. To obviate this in- convenience, a tunnel was constructed under the river at Washington street, arched for two hundred and ninety feet, by which an uninterrupted com- munication was established between the South and West Divisions. This tunnel proved so satisfactory that another tunnel was constructed under the river at La Salle Street, by which a similar communication was established between the North and South Divisions of the city. The streets of Chicago were for the most part laid out on a liberal plan, which admitted of sidewalks ten feet wide and then of a grass plat in front of the residences for the planting of trees and shrubbery, with ample space for vehicles in the centre. Twenty years ago, to a stranger from an East- ern city they seemed unnecessarily wide ; but it was fortunate that this plan had been adopted, for on the in- troduction of the horse - railway the people's mode of conveyance it was found that on either side of the track there was room for two teams to pass. In the improvement of the streets, the original surface was found to be ill- adapted to roadways : the soil was either sand or mud. Plank was first resorted to, and in 1854 twenty -seven miles had thus been laid ; but it was found that with a mortar foundation and 8 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. the churning process performed by each loaded vehicle in passing over, the planks soon formed a barrier to easy and safe locomotion. Macadamising was then resorted to ; but the rocks in the neighborhood, being limestone, while they bedded themselves and served to form a solid foundation, crushed under the action of loaded teams and gave rise to intolerable clouds of dust. The same objection applied to cobble-stones. It was not until a system of drainage was estab- lished that a really permanent road- bed could be obtained. As far back as 1856, the Nicolson or wooden - block pavement was introduced ; the cleanest, the neatest, and the least- noisy of all of the devices for sustain- ing the traffic of a great city. The plat of the city with its several additions, up to 1 870, occupied a space of six miles long and a little more than three miles broad. Along the lake shore, however, the houses stretched almost continuously from Hyde Park to Lake View, a distance of more than ten miles. In the area thus embraced, there were few vacant spaces dedicated to public use. To remedy this, the boundaries of the city were greatly en- larged ; tracts of land were secured in the three divisions of the city for park purposes, which were connected to- gether by boulevards ; systematic plans of landscape gardening were vigorously entered upon ; and the citizens antici- pated the day, by no means remote, when these parks would become favor- ite places of resort, and form the pride and ornament of the city. It is not surprising that a place built up so rapidly as Chicago had been, should present a somewhat incongruous appearance. The pineries of the north, which here found their principal dis- tributing point, afforded materials for cheap and rapid construction. The accessions to the population of the city in the early stages of its growth ex- ceeded each decade six fold, while in the latter stage it fell little short of three. The population thus flowing in required shelter, and landlord and tenant alike concurred, the one in erecting and the other in occupying, tenements of the most unsubstantial character. It is singular how airy these structures were. In the days of our boyhood, passed on the Atlantic Slope, we recollect that the getting to- gether of the materials of a house and framing them, was a labor of no small magnitude. There were to be the sills, the studding, the joists, the braces, the rafters, and the ridge-pole, all of di- mension timber; and when the wholf- was framed, the neighbors were called together, and with spike -poles the) carried up the successive sides. To attend a " raising '' was a notable event. But house - building in Chicago was a very different affair. With the excep- tion of the sills, not a stick of timber entered into the construction which tasked the efforts of two men to carry. These structures received the very ap- propriate name of " balloon " houses ; or, in other words, the greatest superfi- cial contents with the least amount of material. As business increased and more massive and less inflammable structures were required, these houses were moved to the less populous dis- tricts ; and the streets were constantly obstructed by these processions of old and ricketty tenements. The school sec- tion, in the heart of the city, was leased on short terms, and the lessees covered it with indifferent wooden buildings which could be moved off on the expi- ration of the leases. No policy could have been more short-sighted, so far as related to the substantial growth of the city none so well calculated to bring in a meagre revenue. Hence, at an early day Chicago acquired the sobriquet of " Shantytown ; " and well did she deserve that appellation. At the date of the fire there was no city in Christendom which contained such a vast mass of combustible materials. In European cities the term " shin^> roof" is unknown, and partition walia of brick are universal in construction. Hence, a single apartment may be A GLANCE A T CHICAGO 'S HTSTOR Y. burned out, but the idea of a fire ex- tending to a square is preposterous. Chicago, throughout her whole munici- pal history, had been cursed by a Council and a Board of Public Works who, through ignorance or self-will, were utterly indifferent to the ordinary precautions against wide - spread -con- flagrations. They placed no restric- tions on the erection of two -story wooden buildings in the most valuable portions of the city, and outside of a limited area the taste or caprice of the landlord could be indulged without any control whatever. The cupola of the Court House, far above the reach of the water supply, was wood ; and while the safes and vaults of every bank passed through the fiery ordeal comparatively unscathed, the records of every town lot and farm, and of every judicial decision, were consumed beyond the power of recognition. The Water Works, upon which the salvation of the city in such an exigency depended, were roofed with combustible materi- als, and no appliances were provided for putting out a fire. These events, the happening of which could have -been prevented by ordinary precau- tions, argue a remissness on the part of the public authorities amounting to criminality. In every city whose origin goes back to centuries, very many portions of it will be found to have been rebuilt. This process had been entered upon in Chicago, and the structures in the busi- ness part of the city, for the most part, were of enduring materials and almost faultless in architectural arrangement. Field, I.eiter & Co.'s store was a more FIELD, LETTER & CO.'S STORE. 10 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. imposing structure than Stewart's, on Broadway; the Tribune Building was one of the best - appointed newspaper offices in the world ; the First National Bank Building, the Union Building, the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchant's Insurance Building, Drake's Block, Honore's Block, the Pacific Hotel, the Palmer House, the Bookseller's Row, the great station houses of the Michi- gan Southern and the Illinois Central Railroads, and other structures which might be cited, were models of archi- tectural beauty. But the Court House, costly as a structure, was an architectu- ral abortion ; and every citizen, apart from the destruction of its contents, must rejoice that its walls are ruined beyond the power of restoration. The limestones from the line of the canal, the olive - tinted sandstones of North- ern Ohio, and the red sandstones of Lake Superior, which had been em- ployed in the facings of the better class of structures, gave to the buildings a warm and cheerful tint, not to be seen in any other city in America. Many of the private residences on the North Side, and on Michigan and Wa- bashA venues, attracted attention by rea- son of their good taste and appropriate surroundings. Side by side with such structures were to be seen others which would fail to ornament an insignificant country village. With the best flagging stone on the line of the canal, and readily accessible to the city, yet in the burnt district there were nearly thirty miles of pine sidewalks which in the great conflagration became excellent conductors of flame, and forced the fleeing inhabitants to betake them- selves to the middle of the streets. There was not, to our knowledge, a rod of brick pavement in the city. The tallest buildings, and of comparatively incombustible materials, were decora- ted with heavy wooden cornices, and roofed with shingles or a coal tar cov- ering. The river, winding through the heart of the city, was lined with im- mense lumber - yards, coal - yards, pla- ning -mills, sash - factories, and other combustible structures. Private greed, reflecting itself in the public authori- ties, looked only to the present, disre- garding those precautionary measures which long ago were adopted by every considerable city in Christendom to guard against the effects of desolating fires. The cool-headed residents of Chicago, then, are far less inclined to attribute this overwhelming catastrophe to the judgment of God than to the folly of man. When human agency lays the train and fires the match, it evinces an overweening confidence in Divine Providence to expect that it shall intervene to prevent the explo- sion. Throughout the world's history, natural causes have been succeeded by natural events ; and the destruction of Chicago was the legitimate result of the utter disregard of all precautionary measures to stay the progress of a de- structive conflagration. When we shall have eliminated from this grand catas- trophe all the elements chargeable to private greed and public incompetency, there will be left little or nothing to be carried to the account of Divine Provi- dence. . W. Foster. OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. ii OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. DEVELOPMENT OF CHICAGO IN WEALTH AND MATERIAL PROSPERITY. THE growth of Chicago, in all that pertains to a great commer- cial metropolis, presents perhaps the most remarkable instance of rapid and uninterrupted progress of any city in the world, either in ancient or modern times. Going back to 1830, we rind that the census of the United States gave Chicago a total population of only seventy souls; all, or nearly all, of whom were dependent upon the gen- eral government, which had established an Indian agency at this point. When it is remembered that this insignificant nucleus had grown within one genera- tion to over three hundred and thirty- four thousand, as shown by a census taken but a few weeks prior to the great calamity, the question presses for solu- tion By what magic has this marvel- lous result been achieved? What peculiar combination of forces or cir- cumstances has wrought a progress so wonderful and so entirely unparal- lelled ? While it cannot be denied that the city has drawn largely upon the best blood and most vigorous mental capac- ities, not only of our own country but also from foreign immigration, and to an extent that has made it a city rep- resenting by its people natives of almost ever)' town and hamlet in this country and of Europe, thus consoli- dating into one homogeneous citizen- ship, the thought and enterprise of many and widely diversified intellects and educations, still all these advant- ages could not alone produce the results that have been manifest, and that have challenged the attention of the civil- ized world. In fact, this flood of emi- gration would not have set hithcrward but for advantages of a permanent character that were apparent to the observing and inquiring mind. The not infrequent reference, both at home and abroad sometimes in candor and sometimes in irony to the spirit of enterprise and perseverance of the people of Chicago, has to some extent it may be feared done injustice to the peculiar situation and business facilities of the city. Men, however gifted in the diversified qualities of the success- ful and honorable merchant, cannot build up and establish trade where no trade is demanded or required to be done ; and especially in this country men- must seek the centres of business if they would command success as merchants: business will not to any great extent be diverted in quest of men. It is because Chicago has pos- sessed remarkable advantages for the development of trade and commerce, that the remarkable results, now mat- ters of history, have been attained. Any review of the Trade and Com- merce of Chicago, however hasty and imperfect, would be essentially incom- plete without some reference to the basis of that trade, and the reasons that may be adduced for its rapid growth and development. First of all may be noted the broad expanse ot matchless agricultural territory, dotted with farm-houses, villages, and cities, stretching hundreds of miles northward, westward, and southward, all more or less (and the major part of it entirely) dependent upon the city, both as a market for its surplus productions and a source of supply for those necessaries and luxuries that tend to make life enjoyable, and that are produced or manufactured in other portions of this or of foreign countries. But scarcely less important than supply and demand, because by it only can either exist, is the means of speedy transportation demanded by an extended commerce; and this, nature and art have supplied for Chicago to a degree unequalled by any interior city in the land: so that, with lines by water or by rail, the city OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. has come to be a centre from which diverge in all directions ample avenues for conducting an almost limitless traf- fic, and through the influence of which the commerce of the city has been nourished and built up, and by means of which the great Northwest has be- come populous, and the hitherto cheer- less prairie has been converted into a paradise of happiness, prosperity, and substantial wealth. The early history ot the Trade and Commerce of Chicago appears to have differed but little from that of most other Western settlements, consisting at first of a small Indian traffic, but gradually growing in proportions as civ- ilization began to advance into the then almost trackless prairie. Early settlements in Illinois, as in other Western States, was confined almost exclusively to a proximity to such rivers as could be made available for trans- portation ; hence what of trade there ' was, took the direction towards such markets as it could be floated to. Chi- cago was not one of these, for while nature had provided a grand and free highway for commerce from Chicago to the eastward, there were no avenues for it penetrating the interior, until they were created by the necessities of the situation. For the first eighteen years of its settlement, the only trade of Chi- cago was such as it drew from the im- mediately adjoining country, with a limited traffic in such commodities of actual and pressing necessity as were demanded by the settlers at a distance of one hundred miles. All farm prod- ucts were sold, when sold at all, at comparatively low prices; and the en- tire product of a wagon - load of the most valuable available surplus of the farmer, when converted into such arti- cles as he must buy, was scarcely suffi- cient to reward him for the time spent in effecting the exchange, to say noth- ing of the labor and capital employed upon his farm in its production. But notwithstanding the difficulties and embarrassments of both the producer and the merchant, the city had in 1848 increased in population to twenty thous- and, and the taxable value of its real and personal estate, which in 1840 was less than one million of dollars, had risen to six million three hundred thousand dollars. Numerous wholesale establishments for the sale of all kinds of merchandise were in successsful op- eration, and already the trade in cereals had grown to respectable proportions. The attention of the State had at an early day been drawn to the advant- ages of connecting the waters of Lake Michigan with those of the Illinois River; and under liberal appropria- tions of the public lands by the general government in aid of the work, the construction of a canal from Chicago to La Salle, the head of steamboat navigation on the Illinois River, had been in progress for a number of years. After protracted delays, incident to the embarrassed financial condition of the State, this great work was completed, and opened for traffic in the spring of 1848. A new era in the commercial prosperity of the young city now dawn- ed upon it ; and with the rapid settling and development of the territory con- tiguous to this new line of transit, and the facilities it gave for communication with the whole Mississippi Valley, there sprang up a greatly enlarged trade, and an increased confidence in the stability and future greatness of the city. With the cheapened inland transportation, was inaugurated on a largely increased scale the trade in lumber, which has from then till now exhibited a uniformity of growth scarce- ly less marked and noticeable than that in breadstuffs and provisions. Nature has seemed to especially desig- nate the banks of the little bayou on which man has built Chicago as a proper and necessary place for the ex- change of commodities; for at this point, better than any other, can be united the different modes of trans- portation best adapted to the convey- ance of those articles of commerce most largely produced or required by the people in whose interest the exchanges OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. are made. Here meet for exchange the wheat, corn and stock of the farm- er, and the product of the almost ex- haustless forests of the peninsula of Michigan; the latter comparatively valueless but for the demand from the vast and fertile prairie lands, where there was scarce a native tree to break the desert -like monotony, and which in turn, but for the available supply of this building material, would be subject to an expense for a substitute that would greatly reduce their value. Thus each is dependent upon the other, and each by aid of the other has come to , be thriving and prosperous both meantime very materially aiding in the growth and advancement of the city through which the exchanges have been made. The introduction of railroads, at a later but not distant day, was but the further development of transportation facilities, the necessity and advantages of which were made strikingly apparent, by the acknowledged benefit resulting from the completion of the canal line. The first projected line the original Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, now a part of the consolidated Chicago and Northwestern Railway, was in its inception and during all its separate corporate existence under the control, in all respects, of citizens of Chicago ; and although financial aid in its con- struction and equipment was sought and obtained of Eastern capitalists, it was always essentially a monument to the enterprise and faith of a few noble names of Chicago's early citizens. This line was, after hard struggles, opened to the Fox River, some forty miles from the city, in 1850; and although poorly equipped, it soon demonstrated the fact that although not furnishing as cheap a means of transit as water routes, it required but the construction of sufficient lines of railroad to make the great State of Illinois a very gar- den for production, and the home of a dense population. Other lines, which cannot here be alluded to in detail, were speedily projected and built ; un- til, within a marvellously short space of time, the city found itself the centre of a system of railways diverging in every direction, all doing a prosperous and increasing business, eminently satisfactory to their share -holders, and conferring untold blessings upon not only the communities directly inter- ested but the world at large. It may here be remarked, that although every principal line centring in Chicago has been built with special reference to Chicago's trade, and has brought with it increased commerce to the city, it has not been necessary to pledge the municipal credit or tax the body - poli- tic one dollar in aid of their construc- tion, nor has the accumulated capital of the citizens been drawn on to any great extent for their establishment. Chicago lines of railway have, in view of the wonderful past and prospective growth of their traffic, been so emi- nently profitable that capital from abroad has been ever ready to embark in their construction, sometimes even when her own citizens could not readily comprehend the necessity or prospec- tive profit of the investment. The fact that no drain of this kind has been necessary, has left the citizens free to invest in mercantile or other enterprises of a local character, and has enabled them to meet municipal taxation for the extraordinary improvements neces- sary in a city requiring so much ex- penditure to make it convenient and enjoyable, without being oppressively burdened. The subject of railroads may not properly be dismissed without a pass-, ing allusion to the great trans -conti- nental lines built or in progress, and their effect on the commerce of the city. With the completion of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific roads, was demonstrated the fact that for the trade between the Atlantic Slope of the United States and the East Indies and China, this route presents advantages over every other, and especially so for the transportation of valuable freight, such as teas, silks, and the like ; and a OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. large and growing trade was at once inaugurated over the line, which has steadily increased, all or nearly all passing through or stopping in the city of Chicago. Our own merchants im- port largely via San Francisco, and find great satisfaction in the prompt- ness with which they are enabled to receive their consignments, and the very favorable comparison they can institute between the present and the old way of receiving this class of goods. The finger of destiny to-day strongly points to Chicago as the great distribut- ing-point for all Asiatic goods con- sumed in the Mississippi Valley. With the early completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, a remarkably rich and inviting territory will be opened to the emigrant, and in addition very greatly- increased facilities for the Pacific trade will result. That Chicago may, with its numerous favorable connections, reap great benefit therefrom, is not doubted by the careful observer of the course of trade. Already the trade with the mining regions of the Rocky Mountains is very large, and rapidly increasing. This of itself is of great value to our city, hardly appreciated by the mass of the people not directly in- terested or fully informed in regard to it. Whatever may be said of the ad- vantages to the Trade and Commerce of Chicago resulting from her other means of communication with the world, it must be admitted that her crowning glory as a commercial centre is the great highway provided by God himself for the free passage of her shipping on the great chain of lakes, one of the principal of which stretches its magnificent proportions before the eyes of her citizens, and by its pure and invigorating breezes brings health and joy to all within their influence. Without the aid of this means of trans- portation, her warehouses would be- come overburdened and choked, and her railroads could not be relieved of their enormous tonnage ; in fact, but for this natural highway, no city would exist where now is so much of com- mercial life and varied industrial ac- tivity. But few, even of our commer- cial community, are fully aware of the extent of our lake commerce ; and many will be surprised at the statement that our Custom House returns show very much the largest marine business of any in the country. The compara- tive statement of the different customs districts is not now at hand ; but such was an official statement promulgated within the last few months. The num- ber of entries of arrivals at our Custom House during the season of navigation for 1870, was 12,739 vessels; and of clearances during the same time, 12,433 vessels. The navigation of the lakes, though running through but about seven months of the year, is the grand, safety-valve by which all rates of transportation eastward are regulated, and by means of it nearly all our lum- ber and vastly the largest share of our farm products are moved, the former to and the latter from the city. Passing from theories of causes touching the wonderful growth of the Trade and Commerce of the city, and the means by which these have been developed, a brief reference to figures representing the facts in the past his- tory of the city may not be inappropri- ate. Recognizing the agricultural in- terests of the West as the basis of all our commercial importance and pros- perity, the trade in the products of the farm will be first alluded to. The first shipment of grain eastward f.om Chi- cago occurred in 1838, and consisted of seventy -eight bushels of wheat. This shipment was somewhat experi- mental in its character, and no more was forwarded until the next season. For several years subsequent, large quantities of flour were received in the city from New York State and Ohio, for local consumption ; so that probably not until 1842 was there any balance of trade in favor of Chicago. In 1845 the shipments of wheat, and flour re- duced to wheat (and in all the figures following flour will be treated as re- duced to wheat), exceeded 1,000,000 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. bushels. In 1848, the year of the open- ing of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, the grain shipments exceeded 3,000,000 bushels. In 1852, when the influence of advancing lines of railroads began to be felt, the shipments reached near 6,000,000 bushels. From this time for- ward, the traffic assumed most remark- able proportions, reaching in 1856 an aggregate shipment of over 21,000,000 bushels; and in 1860, the year preced- ing the outbreak of civil war, the grain shipments of Chicago exceeded 3 1 ,000,- ooo bushels. During the next five years, the annual shipments ranged from 46,000,000 to 56,000,000 bushels. In 1866 it amounted to 65,486,323 bushels; since which time it has been somewhat less. In 1870 the shipments aggregated 54,745,903 bushels, the least since 1865 the article of wheat in the grain being the largest of any previous year ; while in corn, owing to a partial failure of the crop, the shipments had fallen to less than any of the previous ten years except 1864. The prospect for the business of 1871, up to the time of Chicago's great disaster, was of a most flattering char- acter, and promised for the year to be larger in breadstuffs than ever before. The shipments from January ist to October ist aggregated over 55,000,000 bushels, being fully 15,000,000 bushels in excess of that of the corresponding period in 1870; and the current daily receipts were larger than ever before at the same time in the season. The stocks of grain in store in the city at the time of the fire was about 6,500,- ODO, being much the largest ever held here. A largely increased business was being conducted with Canada, and much more property had been pur- chased in the city for direct export to Europe than ever before. A line of substantial steamers adapted to the trade had been established between Chicago and Montreal, and had not only proved of great value to shippers, but were understood to have demon- strated the enterprise to be a wise finan- cial investment. The enlargement of the Canadian canals, which is hoped for at an early day, will, it is believed, very greatly increase this trade, and will practically give to Chicago the ad- vantages of a seaport, materially less- ening the expenses of communication between producer and consumer. Next in rank of importance to cere- als, in the products of the farm that find a market in Chicago, may be noted the trade in live stock. No re- liable record of receipts and shipments in this branch of trade appears to have been kept until 1857, though for several years previous a considerable business had been conducted ; and as a point for the packing of both cattle and hogs, Chicago had taken a respectable rank as early as 1850. The receipts of cat- tle in 1857 amounted to 48,524 head, increasing the following year to 140,534 ; and thenceforward the growth of the trade was steady and rapid, until in 1870 the receipts reached 532,964 head, being near 130,000 in excess of the previous year. In the first nine months of 1871, the receipts were larger by nearly 40,000 than for the correspond- ing time in 1870 indicating a large increase for the whole year. The re- ceipts of live hogs, which in 1857 amounted to a little over 200,000, have increased much more rapidly, though with not the same regularity, as those of cattle. The receipts in 1 870 amounted to 1,693,158 head, being only about 13,000 less than the greatest number ever received in one year. From January ist to October ist, 1871, the receipts were 1,393,274, being over 400,000 in excess of the corresponding time in 1870, indicating a total of receipts for the current year very greatly larger than any previous year in the city's existence. A large number of hogs are sent to this market that are slaughtered in the interior these ag- gregated in 1870 over 260,000. The larger portion of both cattle and hogs are sold here and shipped eastward, this being by far the largest shipping point in the country ; but vast numbers of both are packed in the city and its 1 6 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. suburbs. The packing of beef is car- ried on much less extensively than a few years since, the demand for the product having very greatly declined, and the business, what there is of it, being transferred to points nearer the feeding -grounds of cattle best fitted for this purpose. The packing of hogs, however, is conducted on a gigantic scale, the number packed at this point greatly overshadowing any other. The number packed at Chicago during the autumn and winter of i Syo-'y i , amount- ed to 919,197 head, against 500,066 head packed in Cincinnati, the point ranking next to Chicago in this line of business. In addition to the packing of the city, a very large amount of pork -product manufactured in the in- terior is marketed in the city, the re- ceipts for 1870 aggregating over 40,000 barrels of pork and 52,000,000 pounds of other provisions, so that the provis- ion trade of the city amounts to an enormous aggregate, and is increasing quite as fast as any other branch of its commerce. The articles of wool, seeds, butter, and in fact all kinds of farm produce, are largely marketed in Chi- cago ; and the trade has assumed such proportions that in many of them large houses are exclusively engaged. The trade in lumber in Chicago far exceeds that of any city in the land. In 1848 it amounted to 60,000,000 feet, in 1870 to over 1,000,000,000, and in all probability will considerably exceed this in 1871. The trade in coal, salt, and many other leading articles, is in proportion to the demands of a country so depend- ent as is the Northwest for the importa- tion of these articles. Of the trade in general merchandise, including dry goods, groceries, hard- ware, drugs, paints, oils, boots and shoes, and clothing, it is safe to say that no city enjoys a larger or more satisfactory business in proportion to its population than does Chicago. Nothing could better illustrate the truth of this than the extent and magnificence of her temples of trade prior to the calam- ity which has laid the city in asnes. No city could boast of more extensive or elegant establishments for the trans- action of business, or better adapted to the purposes for which they were con- structed. In the dry goods trade, there were houses doing an annual business exceeded in only one city in the coun- try ; and in all branches of trade were merchants whose capacity for business, as well as the aggregate amount of their transactions, made them the peers of any either in the West or East. In manufactures, Chicago was fast assuming a prominent place, although during her early years comparatively little attention was given to this subject, mainly owing to the fact that labor in other pursuits yielded a larger remu- neration. For many years, however, the manufacture of agricultural imple- ments, leather, highwines, and flour, have been most successfully conducted ; and later, all kinds of machinery and castings, lead-pipe, shot, printing types and presses, furniture, boots and shoes, hats and caps, clothing, and many other articles, have been extensively manufactured ; while large establish- ments for the manufacture of iron have sprung into being, and given employ- ment to many hundreds of operatives. The amount of capital employed in manufactures in the city is probably not less than 4o,cco,cco, with annual products amounting to at least 70,000,000, and furnishing means of support to perhaps 6o,cco souls. No very reliable data, however, can be ar- rived at touching this important branch of the city's business, but it is believed the above may be regarded as approxi- mately correct. Intimately connected with the Trade and Commerce of the city is the ques- tion of Financial and Banking facili- ties; and in this regard probably no community has ever passed through so checkered an experience as Chicago. In the earlier days of the city it seems to have been the chosen theatre for financial adventurers, with little money and much assurance ; though from the OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. beginning very honorable exceptions may be noted to the general rule. Since the inauguration of the National Banking Law, however, a marked change has occurred ; and at the pres- ent time no class of financial institu- tions rank superior to those of Chicago. There are seventeen banks doing busi- ness under the National Banking Law, and some ten to fifteen banking houses, representing a combined capital of nearly or quite $10,000,000. Universal confidence exists in the soundness and good management of these institutions, and their business is conducted with liberality, but with a wise discretion. Such, briefly, has been the outlines of Chicago's history in Trade and Com- merce, and such was her situation as regards business, present and prospect- ive, when, in view of the past, feeling cheerful, strong, and confident in con- templating the future, beaming with brilliant prospects and high hopes, she is suddenly overtaken by the most dire financial calamity the world has THE CHICAGO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. ever witnessed ; in a day withering those hopes, laying in ashes her lofty and magnificent temples, both of wor- ship and of trade, and utterly annihi- lating her treasures of beauty and of art ; dividing the fortunes of her citi- zens by two, by four, by ten, or by 2 an hundred, and some, alas ! thrusting from wealth and luxury to actual penu- ry and suffering. What wonder that for a moment her people stand appalled as they contemplate the awful wreck ? But it will be only a momen : whilet some may find their burden greater IS Ol'K