Cook County IL Archives History - Books .....History Of Chicago, 1876, Part 3 1876
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Book Title: History Of Chicago

LAKE SHORE PLANK ROAD.

This road was recently organized, is now under contract, and commences at the 
north line of the city limits on Clark street. It runs thence northwardly 
nearly parallel with the lake shore for about two miles, to the new and 
elegant hotel recently erected by Jas. H. Rees, Esq., of this city, and E. 
Hundley, of Virginia; thence through Pine Grove Addition, and to Little river; 
thence northwestwardly to Hood's Tavern, on the Green Bay road, which is in 
reality an extension of North Clark street. The whole length of the road is 
about five miles. It will open up a beautiful section north of the city, in 
which will soon be located elegant residences, surrounded by beautiful 
gardens, furnishing one of the finest "drives" from the city. There are some 
of the most beautiful building spots on the line of the road that can be found 
anywhere in the vicinity of Chicago.

COOK CO. DRAINAGE COMMISSION.

Among the most important of the recent improvements affecting Chicago, the 
drainage of the neighboring wet lands should not be omitted, as well in an 
agricultural and commercial view, as from its effect upon the sanitary 
condition of the pity and its vicinity. This highly important improvement is 
being effected by the "Cook County Drainage Commission," a body incorporated 
by act of legislature, approved June 23, 1852, in which Henry Smith, Geo. W. 
Snow, James H. Rees, Geo. Steele, Hart L. Stewart, Isaac Cook, and Charles V. 
Dyer are named as Commissioners, Dr. Dyer, 28 Clark street, is Secretary of 
the Board.

They and their successors in office are empowered to locate, construct and 
maintain ditches, embankments, culverts, bridges and roads, on any lands lying 
in townships 37, 38, 39 and 40, in ranges 12, 13 and 14, in Cook county; to 
take land and materials necessary for these purposes, and to assess the cost 
of such improvements upon the lands they may deem to be benefited thereby.

Objection was made to the creation of this Commission, that the powers 
entrusted to it were too great, and might be abused, and the act was passed 
with some difficulty. But it was seen that full powers must be given to the 
Commissioners, in order that their efforts for the benefit of the public and a 
large body of proprietors might not be stopped or impeded by a few 
shortsighted objectors. Their powers, in effect, are simply those given to any 
railroad or canal company, for the purpose of effecting a specified object.

The two years of their corporate existence have shown that the Commissioners 
have used their powers faithfully and efficiently. They have located and 
constructed their works generally upon the petition of the proprietors of the 
land to be drained, and it is believed that in every case these improvements 
have been followed by an immediate and commensurate advantage to the lands 
through which they pass.

Their examination showed the Commissioners that avast body of land within the 
limits of the commission, which had before been deemed valueless, lay in fact 
from four to twelve feet above the lake, and needed only a proper drainage to 
make it available for purposes of agriculture and occupation.

Acting upon this knowledge, they have expended some $100,000 in constructing 
ditches and other works, under the superintendence of an able and experienced 
engineer, with the most salutary effect upon a large extent of country. Houses 
are now being built with dry cellars upon ground heretofore covered with 
water. In one instance, a quarter section which had been repeatedly offered 
for sale at five dollars an acre, brought one hundred and twenty-five dollars 
after being drained, and a similar rise of value in lands has been produced in 
other cases. The objects of the Commission will be vigorously prosecuted 
during the coming summer, and it is hoped that the unsightly swamps which have 
heretofore disfigured this and adjoining townships, will soon, become "smiling 
gardens and rich fields of waving corn."


MANUFACTURES.

What is presented under this head can not be considered as exhibiting anything 
like a complete view of Chicago manufactures. There are many branches, such as 
the making of hats and caps, clothing, boots and shoes, fur goods, harness, 
trunks, saddlery, etc., etc., which are omitted entirely, and others are sadly 
imperfect; but the fact arises from our inability to obtain correct data from 
those engaged in the various departments of business. We have repeatedly been 
promised facts and figures which have not come to hand, and the publication of 
our article cannot longer be delayed. Enough is shown, however, in what 
follows, to establish the truth of the declaration that the position of 
Chicago is not less favorable for a manufacturing than a commercial centre, 
and that capital invested in manufactures is here sure to yield a large profit.

CHICAGO LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY.

The attention of our business men was called last September, to the importance 
of establishing at this point the manufacture of locomotives, an enterprise 
which was demanded by the concentration of so many extensive and diverging 
lines of railroads at this place; a company was at once formed, with a capital 
stock of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the following gentlemen 
chosen a Board of Trustees:

Wm. H. Brown.        
E. H. Hadduck.
Thos. Dyer.	
J. H. Collins.
Geo. Steele.	
J. P. Chapin.
Robt. Foss.	
W. S. Gurnee.
W. H. Scoville.

The company was fully organized by the election of the following officers: WM. 
H. BROWN, President. W. H. SCOVILLE, Treasurer. SHOLTO DOUGLASS, Secretary. E. 
H. HADDUCK, ROBERT FOSS, WM. H. BROWN, Executive Committee.

Messrs. H. H. Scoville & Son, who had been for several years extensively 
engaged in the construction of various kinds of machinery, and the building of 
railroad cars, and had large buildings well located and adapted to the wants 
of the new company, offered their establishment; it was accordingly purchased, 
and is now the headquarters of the Chicago Locomotive Company. The Messrs. 
Scoville had already commenced a locomotive, which was placed upon the track 
soon after the organization, and was the first locomotive built in Chicago. It 
was named the "Enterprise," and its entering into the service of the Galena 
and Chicago Union R. R. was made the occasion of an appropriate celebration. 
Since that time, the Locomotive Company have furnished the same road with 
another engine, the "Falcon," pronounced by all a first class locomotive. 
Their third locomotive will be put upon the track in a few days, and will add 
to the growing reputation of Chicago-built engines. In a short time the 
company will employ about two hundred men at their works and will be able to 
turn out two engines per month, every portion of which will be manufactured 
from the raw material in this city. We are happy to learn that the company are 
supplied with orders for sometime to come, and from the arrangements they have 
made for the best material and most skillful workmen, together with an 
abundance of capital, it is certain that a short time will demonstrate that it 
is no longer necessary for railroad companies to order, locomotives 
exclusively from Eastern manufacturers. The G. & C. U. R. R. have rebuilt 
several locomotives at their extensive machine shop, and within a few weeks 
they have turned out an entirely new first class engine, which may properly be 
called a Chicago locomotive, since the drafting and all the work was done at 
their shop, except the boiler and driving wheels The "Black Hawk" compares 
favorably with the best Eastern locomotives, and is doing daily duty for its 
builders, never yet having been "behind time."

AMERICAN CAR COMPANY.

The American Car Company commenced business in the fall of 1852, but did not 
get fully under way until the following March, when all the various 
departments of the factory were properly organized. Their works are situated 
on the lake shore, in the southern part of the city, about three miles from 
the mouth of the harbor, and the buildings, with the necessary yard room, 
cover thirteen acres. The Michigan Central and Illinois Central Railroads pass 
by the factory, so that the location is most favorable on many accounts. They 
have a foundry where they cast wheels and boxes and all the casting requisite 
for cars—in fact, they manufacture every portion of their cars from the raw 
material, except cloths, and such ornamental trimmings as belong exclusively 
to other branches of manufacture. The American Car Company has constructed 
about seven hundred cars of all kinds, the great majority of them being 
freight cars. Nothing can exceed the passenger cars which they have furnished 
the Illinois Central road for completeness of arrangement and perfection of 
finish. The number of men employed at the works varies from two hundred and 
fifty to three hundred. The value of finished work sent out from the factory 
up to the first of January, 1854, is a little beyond four hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. D. H. Lyman, Esq., is the able and energetic Superintendent 
of the Company.

UNION CAR WORKS.

A. B. Stone & Co. are the proprietors of this establishment. The ground it now 
occupies was an unbroken prairie in September, 1852, when they commenced the 
erection of their buildings. In February, 1853, they had their buildings and 
machinery erected, and turned out the first car; since which time they have 
furnished two hundred and fifty freight, and twenty first class passenger, ten 
second class passenger, and ten baggage and post-office cars. Their machinery 
is driven by a seventy-five horse power steam engine. They have consumed in 
the past year about one and a half million feet of timber; six hundred tons of 
wrought iron; one thousand tons of cast iron, two hundred tons of coal, and 
employed 150 men. They have the equipping of the C. & R. I. R. R. and the 
western division of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad. In addition to the iron 
work for their cars, they have manufactured all the iron for Messrs. Stone & 
Boomer, used in the construction of bridges, turntables, etc. They have 
enlarged their buildings and increased their facilities sufficiently to enable 
them to turn out five hundred freight and forty passenger cars per year.

BRIDGE BUILDING,  ETC.

Messrs. Stone & Boomer, builders of Howe's Patent Truss Bridges, Locomotive 
Turntables, Roofs, etc., occupy for their framing ground and yard several lots 
adjoining the Union Car Works. They have had contracts the past year for 
bridges on twenty-four different railroads in Illinois, Missouri, and 
Wisconsin, embracing one hundred and fifty bridges, the aggregate length of 
which is thirty-seven thousand linear feet.

This company has a capital invested of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
and employ upon an average three hundred men. They have used two thousand tons 
of iron, and five and a half million feet of lumber. Bridges completed, ten 
thousand linear feet; bridges not completed, twenty-seven thousand linear 
feet. Turn-tables completed, nineteen; not completed, twelve. Cubic yards of 
masonry—completed and not completed, nine thousand. Gross earnings, eight 
hundred thousand dollars.
 
ILLINOIS STONE AND LIME COMPANY.

This new Company was organized in this city in December last, purchasing the 
entire interest of Messrs. A.. S. & O. Sherman in the celebrated stone quarry 
at Lemont, twenty-five miles south of Chicago, upon the Illinois and Michigan 
canal, also the lime kiln property near Bridgeport. The following are the 
officers of the company:

W. S. GURNEE, President. 
M. C. STEARNS, Secretary and Treasurer. 
A. S. & O. SHERMAN, Superintendents. 

The stone obtained at the quarry now worked by this company, is nearly a milk 
white limestone, and forms one of the most beautiful building materials to be 
found in the Western States. The edifices which have already been completed 
with fronts of this stone, attract the attention and command the admiration of 
all who visit the city, and are pointed out with an extreme degree of 
satisfaction and even pride, by our citizens.

The existence of this quarry at so short a distance, of inexhaustible extent, 
and accessible by water communication, is a most fortunate circumstance 
connected with, the building up of our city. The stone can be furnished where 
it is wanted, so that the cost of a wall of this material is only one-third 
greater than that of Milwaukee brick with stone dressings, while in the beauty 
of the two styles there is hardly room to institute a comparison.

The Company have been making, during the past winter, extensive preparations 
for the activity of the opening season, having in their employ, at the quarry 
and at the yards here, about three hundred men. We are informed that contracts 
have already been made for furnishing fronts of this stone to twelve buildings 
on business streets, besides several private residences, all going up this 
summer. The Company expect to increase the number of men employed to five 
hundred, also to increase their facilities for transportation, and provide 
additional machinery and steam power, in order to fully meet the demand upon 
their resources.
 
MARBLE WORKS.

There are several establishments in the city for dressing marble for 
cemeteries, interior decorations for buildings, furniture, and various other 
purposes, but we have only space to speak of one of the principal. Messrs. H. 
& O. Wilson have extensive buildings with necessary yard room, at the corner 
of State and Washington streets, erected last summer. The amount of business 
last year, exceeded fifteen thousand dollars. We mention as a single item, 
that one hundred marble mantles were sold by them last year.

BRICK YARDS.

The subsoil of Chicago and vicinity is a blue clay, underlying the surface 
from three to six feet and affording an exhaustless supply of material for the 
manufacture of brick, which are strong, heavy and durable. We are not able to 
ascertain accurately the number of brick manufactured here last year, but have 
gathered enough information to show that it must have reached twenty millions. 
These brick were all used in the erection of buildings last season, in 
addition to those imported from Milwaukee and other lake ports, which fell but 
little short of three millions. In the spring of 1853 contracts for Chicago 
brick delivered at the buildings were closed at four dollars and twenty-five 
cents per thousand, but they advanced during the summer to six dollars. The 
contract price for quantities, this season, ranges from six dollars to six 
dollars and fifty cents. The following are among the principal manufacturers 
of brick: G.W. Penney; F.T. & E. Sherman; Elston & Co.; Anthony Armitage; 
Louis Stone.

COACHES, CARRIAGES AND WAGONS.

The manufacture of vehicles of various descriptions to supply the demand of 
the city and country has kept pace with the increase of other departments of 
business, and from small beginnings in board shanties, has taken possession of 
large edifices of brick and stone, resonant with the whirl of multiform 
machinery driven by steam power, where the division of labor among the bands 
of workmen, each skillful in his own line, results in the production of 
articles finished in the best manner for the purpose at the lowest possible 
cost. It is a noficeable fact that the importation at this place of vehicles 
from Eastern factories has almost entirely ceased, and is confined to buggies 
and light carriages, mostly destined for the interior. We have not space to 
speak of all the wagon factories in the city; large and small they number 
nearly one hundred. We therefore mention only some of the principal.

B. C. Welch & Co. occupy an extensive establishment on Randolph street, and 
devote themselves entirely to the production of buggies, carriages, omnibuses 
and coaches. The following figures will give an idea of the business of this 
house, whose work will in all respects compare most favorably with those 
imported from builders enjoying only a more extended reputation and of longer 
standing. The capital employed in this establishment is thirty-two thousand 
dollars, and the amount of finished work disposed of last year reached the sum 
of forty-five thousand dollars. The average number of men in the factory is 
about seventy. The number of carriages sold during the year was one hundred 
and eighty-five, of which fifteen were omnibuses for the various lines in the 
city, ranging in price from five hundred to five hundred and fifty dollars 
each. Among the number were five close carriages, ranging from five hundred to 
eight hundred dollars each.

Ellithorpe & Kline are also engaged in the exclusive manufacture of carriages, 
ranging through all the styles from the light open buggy to the heavy family 
and lively carriages; and they have already acquired an enviable reputation in 
their line. Their establishment is in the West Division, at the corner of 
Randolph and Morgan streets. Their sales last year amounted to fifteen 
thousand dollars. It is their intention to more than double their business 
during the present year, in doing which they will employ constantly from fifty 
to sixty men.

P. Schuttler has a large factory at the corner of Randolph and Franklin 
streets, where the business is confined exclusively to the manufacture of 
lumber wagons. A steam engine furnishes the motive power for all requisite 
machinery, and about thirty-five men are constantly employed in the 
establishment, as carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, etc. The number of wagons 
made annually somewhat exceeds four hundred, and their value amounts to nearly 
thirty thousand dollars.

J. C. Outhet has a factory on Franklin street, from which he sold last year 
one hundred and fifty wagons, besides numerous drays, carts and buggies, sales 
amounting to about seventeeen thousand dollars. The number of men employed 
here is about eighteen. Mr. Outhet proposes to enlarge his establishment and 
introduce steam power, by which his business will hereafter be greatly 
extended.

H. Whitbeck unites the manufacture of wagons, buggies and carriages with that 
of plows. Within the fast year he has greatly, enlarged his factory by the 
erection of a large brick building of four stories, for machinery, besides 
numerous smaller shops for various purposes. The capital invested in this 
establishment is in buildings and machinery, twenty thousand dollars; in 
stock, fifteen thousand dollars; total, thirty-five thousand dollars. The 
amount of sales for the preceding year exceeded forty thousand dollars. The 
number of vehicles manufactured for the same period is five hundred and eighty-
nine, and the number of plows, one thousand. This establishment now gives 
employment to from forty to fifty men, and it is the intention of the 
proprietor to increase his business during the present year.

FURNITURE.

This forms another very extended department of manufacture in our midst, and 
in which very many persons are engaged. Our limits will allow us to speak of 
but one or two of the largest establishments. Numerous as they are, and many 
of them employing a large capital, they are called upon beyond their power to 
meet the demand, and there is probably no other branch of manufacture more 
inviting at present, than the one under consideration. The rapid growth of the 
city is to be supplied, and the wide expanse of country penetrated by our 
railroads, filling up with new settlers, while the old ones are increasing 
wonderfully in wealth and in wants. We have often paused in the railroad 
depots to notice the immense quantities of furniture accumulating for 
distribution in the interior, bearing cards of Chicago manufacturers.

C. Morgan occupies a building on Lake street, twenty feet front by one hundred 
and sixty-three deep, and running up entire five stories. The two lower floors 
are used to exhibit samples, and three upper devoted to the workmen. Although 
keeping a general assortment, Mr. Morgan is engaged principally in the 
manufacture of chairs and the more expensive kinds of furniture, embracing all 
the recent styles of pattern, finish and material. His sales last year 
amounted to thirty thousand dollars, the establishment affording employment to 
over forty men.

Ferris & Boyd have their show rooms on Lake street, and their shop on Van 
Buren street. In the latter their machinery requires an engine of fifteen 
horse power, and the increase of their business has compelled them to add 
forty feet of shafting within a few months. They employ constantly about fifty 
men, while their machinery does the work of twenty-five or thirty hands. Their 
manufactured articles are rather more in the common and useful line than the 
luxurious and expensive, while neatness of finish and elegance of style 
characterize all their productions. They connect with their business the 
manufacture of frames for pictures and mirrors. We believe it is the only 
establishment in this city where gilt frames are made to any extent. They turn 
out very fine work in this line; some of their frames go as high as one 
hundred dollars each. Their entire sales last year reached fifty thousand 
dollars.

Among the other furniture manufacturers in the city, doing a large business, 
we mention the names of Boyclen & Willard, D. L. Jacobus & Bro. and Thomas 
Manahan.
 
CHICAGO OIL MILL.

Messrs. Scammon & Haven are the proprietors of this establishment—the only one 
in the city. It is capable of manufacturing one hundred thousand gallons of 
oil per annum. Owing to the difficulty of supplying themselves with seed, only 
forty thousand gallons were the product of the mill during the last year. 
Before the commencement of this important enterprise, in 1852, there was very 
little flax raised by our farmers, and in the spring of that year Messrs. 
Scammon & Haven imported several thousand bushels and sold it to the farmers 
at cost, in order that they might be able to supply their mill by the time it 
could be put in operation. They paid for seed during the past year from one 
dollar to one dollar twelve and a half cents, and are now selling oil at 
eighty-five cents. Before this mill was established, flax seed was scarcely 
known in this market, and what did arrive sold at sixty to seventy-five cents 
per bushel. It will be seen, therefore, that the amount of business done by 
this mill is a clear gain to Chicago, and the region of country that is 
tributary to the city. It is a great convenience to our painters to be able to 
purchase a first rate article of oil in our city. The neighboring towns and 
cities also find it for their advantage to purchase their oil of Messrs. 
Scammon & Haven, as they are sure to get an article of very superior quality.

The machinery is propelled by an engine of fifteen horse power, and the 
processes by which it is manufactured are exceedingly interesting and curious. 
Between three and four thousand barrels of oil cake were sold in this city and 
shipped East by Messrs. Scammon & Haven during the past year.

Another important department of this establishment is the manufacture of 
putty. About two hundred thousand pounds were manufactured during the past 
year.

The total amount of capital invested is between twenty-five and thirty 
thousand dollars.

SOAP AND CANDLES.

The large amount of packing at this place, especially of beef, affords a good 
opportunity for the extensive manufacture of soap and candles. There are 
several large establishments in the city, besides numerous small factories. As 
we are not furnished with data for giving the total business of the city in 
this line, we take one of the principal establishments, that of Charles 
Cleaver, Esq., situated at Cleaverville, upon the lake shore south of the 
city. The manufacture and sale by this establishment last year was as follows:

Candles, pounds,	495,000
Soap, pounds, 		682,000
Lard Oil, gallons,	 43,500
Tallow, pounds,		884,300
Lard, pounds,		334,341

In connection with his business Mr. Cleaver has imported within the year three 
hundred and fifty tons of rosin, soda, etc., etc.

MACHINERY.

It is a source of gratification that Chicago is not only able to nearly supply 
the demand for machinery within her own limits, but contributes largely to aid 
in the erection of mills and factories at other localities, some of which are 
far from being in our immediate vicinity. Engines, boilers, and machinery of 
all kinds are continually going out from the shops, while the demand increases 
faster than the facilities for supplying it. As we stood in a boiler shop but 
the other day, the hammers were ringing upon the rivets of seven boilers, four 
of which were for mills in Michigan, one for a town in Indiana, one for 
Davenport, Iowa, and one for Rockford. We have gathered the following facts in 
relation to several establishments.

Charles Reissig has a steam boiler factory from which last year the finished 
work sent out amounted to twenty-eight thousand dollars and the value of 
material purchased was eighteen thousand dollars. The number of boilers made 
at this shop last year was one hundred and seventeen, which, together with the 
other blacksmithing, afforded constant employment to about twenty-five men.

Messrs. Mason & McArthur employ at their works on an average forty men. They 
build gasometers, purifiers, governors, and all the wrought iron work for the 
gasworks; also steam boilers, water tanks, together with sheet iron work and 
black-smithing in all its branches. The amount of business carried on by them 
may be estimated from the fact that they expended last year for iron and labor 
thirty-eight thousand dollars.

P. W. Gates & Co., proprietors of the Eagle Works, are large manufacturers of 
railroad cars, steam engines and boilers, and machinery of all kinds. They 
have a capital of fifty-five thousand dollars invested. The manufactured work 
of last year amounted to one hundred and ten thousand dollars, giving 
employment to one hundred and fifty men. Among the articles turned out by them 
were one hundred and twenty-five railroad cars and twenty steam engines.

H. P. Moses is the proprietor of the Chicago Steam Engine Works, on the South 
Branch, the oldest machine shop in the city. He is confined to the manufacture 
of steam engines, mill-gearing, etc. Last year he constructed thirteen 
engines, ranging from ten to one hundred horse power, their valae amounting to 
$55,000. He employs sixty-five men, and his engines have a good reputation. 
There are now in his hands nineteen engines which will be finished within the 
next three months.   We will remark here, that he is now building one to run 
our presses, which will be a model engine of its size. It rates in common 
parlance at ten horse power, but with the boiler we shall put up with it, its 
builder says it will run up to twenty.

LEATHER MANUFACTURE.

In this department we are furnished with statistics of the operations of three 
establishments. That of W. S. Gurnee tanned last year eighteen thousand hides, 
out of forty-five thousand handled, in which was consumed nearly one thousand 
eight hundred cords of bark. The tannery, with yards, drying sheds and other 
buildings, occupies two acres on the South Branch. The establishment employs 
fifty men, and a large steam engine is used to drive all necessary machinery. 
Messrs. C. F. Grey & Co. tanned, last year, thirteen thousand eight hundred 
and nineteen hides, and the sales of leather amounted to sixty-two thousand 
dollars. They employ upon an average thirty-two men in this part of their 
business. We mention here that the firm of S. Mies & Co., in which they are 
partners, have manufactured since August 1st, 1853, about eighteen thousand 
pounds of pulled wool, taken from pelts purchased for tanning.

Another establishment which employs twenty-five men furnishes us with the 
following figures of their business for the last year: Number of hides and 
skins tanned, 6,984; sides of harness leather, 3,395; bridle, 1,479; collar, 
965; upper, 4,577; calf skins, 1,636; belting, 281.

STOVES.

We have but one establishment of long standing, the Phoenix Foundry, of 
Messrs. H. Sherman & Co., which has been doing a large business for several 
years, and become well known by the extent of its operations and the quality 
of its wares. We are not able to state how many stoves were sent out from this 
foundry last year, but the proprietors employ constantly fifty men, and cast, 
daily, six tons of metal. Connected with the sales room on Lake street is a 
shop for making furniture for stoves, where, in the fall and winter, a number 
of tinsmiths are employed.

Vincent, Himrod & Co. have established a stove foundry during the year, from 
which they are prepared to turn out from four to five thousand stoves per 
annum, and will, within a short time, enlarge their works so as to manufacture 
double that number.

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

In addition to the manufacture of plows, already mentioned, we have factories 
for making threshing machines, corn shellers, fanning mills, and other farming 
utensils, but we are without figures to exhibit the amount of business.

J. S. Wright has commenced here the manufacture of Atkins' Self-Raking Reaper 
and Mower. Last season, the first of the enterprise, he turned out sixty 
machines. He has now in hand three hundred machines, which will be finished in 
time for the coming harvest, and furnished at one hundred and seventy-five 
dollars on time—one hundred and sixty dollars cash. The establishment at 
present employs about seventy-five men, but will be greatly enlarged during 
the year, as it is the intention of the manufacturer to build one thousand 
machines in time for the following season. McCormick's Eeaper Factory has been 
in successful operation for so many years, and the machines constructed have 
attained such a world-wide celebrity, that it is unnecessary for us to more 
than briefly notice it here. It occupies extensive buildings and grounds on 
the north side of the river, near the mouth of the harbor, and the time was 
when its tall chimney formed, perhaps, the most prominent landmark for vessels 
approaching the harbor. Now we have hundreds as large and high, like volcanic 
craters belching forth clouds of smoke, suggestive of the mighty toil of the 
elements beneath. The number of reaping and mowing machines manufactured and 
sold in 1853, amounted to a little less than one thousand five hundred, 
which, at an average price of one hundred and thirty dollars, gives one 
hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars as the amount of sales. The number of 
combined reaping and mowing machines turned out during the present year will 
be at least one thousand five hundred, furnished at one hundred and fifty 
dollars each. The number of men employed at the works is about one hundred and 
twenty.

[From our COMMERCIAL REVIEW for 1853, only the conclusion and the note 
appended to the third edition of 5,000 copies of "Our Pamphlet" are here 
quoted.]

CONCLUSION.

It is scarcely necessary for us to recapitulate the facts which we have 
already stated. Business men will not be slow to draw their conclusions in 
reference to the prospects of Chicago. No one who has studied her unrivaled 
commercial position, and the richness, beauty and extent of the country by 
which she is surrounded, can doubt for a moment that Chicago, at no distant 
day, is destined to become the great central city of the continent. In the 
centre of one of the most fertile agricultural regions on the globe; 
surrounded by exhaustless mines of lead, iron, copper and coal; having a water 
communication with the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, and holding the key to 
a coasting trade of three thousand miles, with more than a dozen railroads 
branching off for thousands of miles in all directions, every element of 
prosperity and substantial greatness is within her grasp. She fears no rivals, 
confident that the enterprise and energy which have heretofore marked her 
progress will secure for her a proud and pre-eminent position among her sister 
cities of the Union. She has to wait but a few short years the sure 
development of her "MANIFEST DESTINY."


NOTE.

The past has been an eventful Summer for Chicago. The Spring opened with an 
unusual degree of prosperity. Improvements of all kinds were going forward 
with great rapidity, and business of all kinds was very active. So healthy was 
the city that the Board of Health had not thought it necessary to make regular 
reports.

The week succeeding the 4th of July was excessively hot, and on Friday, 
Saturday and Sunday, July 7th, 8th and 9th, the cholera came upon us like a 
thunderbolt. The most extravagant stories were widely circulated in reference 
to its fatality in the city; a portion of our citizens, without stopping to 
investigate the facts, fled in "hot haste," and for a week or two everything 
was at a stand.

When time had been allowed to investigate the facts, it was found that Chicago 
had not suffered so much from the disease as some other neighboring cities. 
The reports of the City Sexton showed that the total deaths on the days above 
named had averaged only from forty to forty-four, and thirty-six was the 
highest number that had died of cholera on either of the days above named. 
During several of the succeeding weeks the deaths by cholera averaged from 
twelve to twenty. This, for a city of seventy thousand inhabitants, is not a 
large mortality. When the statistics for the year are made out, we are 
satisfied that Chicago will fully maintain the position she has heretofore 
acquired, of being one of the healthiest cities in the Union. By the first of 
August business began to revive, and it has been steadily increasing, till we 
now find our streets crowded to overflowing. Our merchants, our mechanics, and 
manufacturers of all kinds, have all the business they can possibly do. Yet 
those who love to work, and who know how to do it, come to Chicago. There is 
not a spot in the wide world where honest industry is so sure of a competence—
we might say, a fortune. Our railroads are pouring an immense flood of trade 
and travel into the city, and Chicago is making rapid progress in wealth, 
population and substantial improvement. Our best informed men are satisfied 
that the coming new year will find at least eighty thousand people in Chicago, 
and by another year from that time the footings will be very handsomely beyond 
a hundred thousand.

We owe an apology to our friends for delaying this edition to so late a day in 
the season. The truth is, our job office has been so crowded with work that it 
was impossible to get anything done for ourselves. Our presses now run by 
steam, and we have otherwise largely increased our facilities to meet the 
wants of our growing city. The public may rest assured that no effort shall be 
spared by the editors and proprietors of the Press to advance the interests 
and secure the commercial supremacy of the Empire City of the Mississippi 
Valley.

CHICAGO, Oct. 7th. 1854.
 

HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
1854.
 
From our Commercial Review for 1854, published early in 1855, the following 
extracts are taken. They were written by my associate, the late J. L. Scripps.


CHICAGO THE GREATEST PRIMARY GRAIN PORT IN THE WORLD.

A little over one month since, the Democratic Press announced the important, 
fact that Chicago had already attained the rank of the greatest Primary Grain 
Port in the World. The statement was accompanied by figures and estimates 
showing the grounds upon which the claim was based. That article has been 
copied and commented upon throughout the Union, and gone the rounds of 
newspaper doubt, ridicule and criticism. We are now enabled to present our 
readers with the actual figures which establish that position beyond the reach 
of a doubt. From the published tables of grain receipts for January 1st, 1855, 
we compile the following statement of 

TOTAL RECEIPTS OF FLOUR AND GRAIN.

Wheat, bu			3,038,955
Corn				7,490,753
Oats				4,194,385
Rye				   85,691
Barley				  201,764

	      		       15,011,540

Flour (158,575 bbls.) 	          792,875
  into Wheat
Total			       15,804,423

In like manner may be presented the shipments for the season, viz:

Wheat, bu			2,106,725
Corn				6,837,899
Oats				3,229,987
Rye	    			   41,153
Barley	   			  148,421
 
			       12,364,185

Flour (107,627 bbls.)	          538,135
  into Wheat
Total			       12,902,320

These figures leave a balance for City consumption, etc., etc., of nearly 
three millions of bushels, of which it is not at all improbable that some 
portion may have been shipped without representation in our columns. But a 
small amount is requisite to make up full thirteen millions of bushels, 
actually exported, though this is immaterial, as in either case the position 
claimed is sufficiently established. That there may be no ground for 
incredulity we proceed to lay before our readers the statistics, gleaned from 
authentic sources, which confirm this statement. In the table which follows we 
have in all cases reduced flour to its equivalent in wheat, estimating five 
bushels of the latter to one of the former. The exports from the European 
ports are an average for a series of years—those of St. Louis for the year 
1853, those for Chicago and Milwaukee for the current year, and those for New 
York are for the first eleven months of the same year. With these explanations 
we invite attention to the following table:

CITIES            Wheat, bu.    Ind. Corn, bu.  Oats, Rye & Barley  Total, bu.
Odessa                5,608,000         -----            1,440,000    7,040,000
Galatz & Ibrelia      2,400,000      5,600,000             320,000    8,320,000
Dantzic               3,080,000         -----            1,328,000    4,408,000
St. Petersburg           -----      all kinds               -----     7,200,000
Archangel                -----             do               -----     9,528,000
Riga                     -----             do               -----     4,000,000
St. Louis             3,082,000        918,384           1,081,678    5,081,468
Milwaukee             2,723,574        181,937             841,650    3,787,161
New York              6,812,452        627,883              -----     9,430,335
Chicago               2,644,860      6,837,899           3,419,551   12,902,310


By comparing the exports of the different places mentioned in the above table, 
it will be seen that the grain exports of Chicago exceed those of New York by 
3,471,975 bushels—those of St. Louis by more than two hundred and fifty per 
cent., those of Milwaukee nearly four hundred per cent. Turning to the great 
granaries of Europe, Chicago nearly doubles St. Petersburg, the largest, and 
exceeds Galatz and Ibrelia, combined, 4,582,810 bushels.

Twenty years ago, Chicago, as well as most of the country from whence she now 
draws her immense supplies of bread-stuffs, imported both flour and meat for 
home consumption—now, she is the largest primary grain depot in the world, and 
she leads all other ports of the world, also, in the quantity and quality of 
her beef exports!! We say the largest primary grain depot in the world, 
because it cannot be denied that New York, Liverpool, and some other great 
commercial centres, receive more breadstuffs than Chicago does in the course 
of the year, but none of them will compare with her, as we have shown above, 
in the amount collected from the hands of the producers.

What a practical illustration the above facts afford as to the wonderful, the 
scarcely credible, progress of the West—what an index it furnishes to the 
fertility of her soil and to the industrious and enterprising character of our 
people—what a prophecy of the destiny that awaits her when every foot of her 
long stretches of prairie and her rich valleys shall have been reduced to a 
thoroughly scientific tillage! How long, at this rate, will it be before the 
centre of population and of wealth will have arrived at the meridian line of 
our city, and Chicago will have vindicated her right to be recognized as the 
great commercial metropolis of the United States? We verily believe such is 
the destiny that awaits her.*

The following article was written for the Democratic Press by Rev. J. A. 
Wight, for many years editor of The Prairie Farmer, now of Bay City, Michigan. 
I insert it for the permanent value of the facts it contains.

A TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF CHICAGO AND VICINITY.

Capacity for Drainage—Character of Soil, with its adaptation to Culture.

SOIL.

The soil upon which Chicago is situated, together with that of its immediate 
vicinity, is, like that of the whole western country, alluvial. The chief 
difference which obtains between it and that of the rolling prairies inland, 
is the probable result of the fact, that it is of later deposite, 
corresponding in this respect to its greater proximity to the Lake Shore. It 
consequently exhibits marks of rawness, as if, at no distant period, it had 
lain under water. The surface consists of a loam, varying not much in 
thickness from one foot, of an exceeding fineness, as if ground in a mortar, 
generally black in color but possessing in its native state no very decided 
strength.

This soil is underlaid in some places with sand, especially along the Lake 
Shore, of from one to five feet in thickness, when we come upon abed of 
reddish calcareous loam, extending downwards to the blue clay, which underlies 
the bed of the Lake, and all the country adjoining. Near the rivers, and 
westward from the Lake Shore, the sand is mostly wanting, except in mixture 
with the loam, which latter is often eight or ten feet in thickness. The blue 
clay before spoken of is

-----------------------
* These facts did much, to advertise Chicago. Even then it would scarcely have 
been believed that in successive years Chicago would be proved to be the 
largest lumber, beef and hog market in the world. Such has long since been the 
fact.
-----------------------
 
of exceeding pureness and tenacity, and extends downward from twenty to one 
hundred feet in depth. The calcareous subsoil is far superior in quality to 
the black soil above it, possessing, in fact, great resources for production 
if properly free from water, and aerified. The chief characteristic of the 
soil, mechanically considered, is its fineness. To this all its good and bad 
qualities are attached. As a consequence, it is in the best condition to 
promote an active growth of vegetation, but packs closely, and holds water 
with great tenacity, and resting as it does on a close subsoil, it must of 
necessity be wet until provided with a suitable drainage. It is to this 
mechanical condition of the soil that the region owes its character of 
wetness, and not to its want of height above the Lake, or of variety in 
service, as will easily be seen when another topic is considered. That is

HEIGHT OF LAND.

The general idea of Chicago and vicinity is, that it is "low," "not higher 
than the Lake," and consequently undrained and undrainable. The eye says 
that "it is a dead level;" and as the evidence of the eyes is considered 
beyond appeal, its character so passes. There is, however, an authority on 
such subjects higher than the eye, and to that we resort. That authority is an 
instrument called a "level," and as this instrument has traveled over every 
part of the region, and noted its observations in figures, we shall have no 
difficulty in reaching correct results.

Beginning then at a point four miles north of the mouth of the Chicago river 
on the Lake Shore, we find the bank of the Lake varying within the compass of 
a half mile, from twenty to forty feet above the Lake. Starting thence due 
west on a section line, and going one-half a mile, we find the height—always 
above the Lake—to be twenty-one and a fourth feet; thence still west to the 
bank of the North branch of the Chicago river, the height is six feet and 
thirty-nine hundredths. Still west two and a half miles the elevation is 
twenty-nine and a half feet.

Taking another and parallel section line, two and a half miles north of the 
mouth of the Chicago river, we find the Lake Shore elevated seven and a half 
feet; due west of this the river bank is eight and a fourth feet; while at one 
and a half miles still west we have a fraction less than twelve feet, and at 
two and a half miles twenty-seven feet elevation.

On the parallel section line half a mile north of the mouth of the river, and 
where that line crosses the city limit, the elevation is twenty-three and a 
third feet.
 
Coming south and taking Madison street, which commences about half a mile 
south of the mouth of the river, and following it westward till it crosses the 
city limit, the height is a little over ten feet, and at a point three miles 
still west, it is twenty-three and a third feet.

Following Twelfth street westward, the bank of the river is six and a half 
feet. At two miles west, the height is ten feet, and three miles, nineteen 
feet.

On the parallel section line commencing three and a half miles south of the 
mouth of the river and at the southern city limit, the elevation is fifteen 
and a fourth feet, and one mile still south it is sixteen and a half feet.

At the junction of the Southern Michigan and Rock Island Railroad, the 
elevation is twenty feet, while the head of Blue Island is seventy-six feet.

Within the city proper, the height of Michigan and Wabash avenues varies from 
ten to fifteen, feet, while the bank of the river is from five to eight feet.

It is a truth, however, that there is an ebb and flow of the Lake, extending 
through periods of from five to ten years, equal to three or four feet. These 
periods of ebb and flow correspond entirely with the succession of wet or dry 
seasons which prevail, and which succeed each other. During the succession of 
five or eight years of continued wet weather, there will be a continued rise 
of the Lake which will give way during a similar period of drouth. Our later 
built stores and dwellings, all have or may have cellars beneath them. At 
present grades those along Lake and Water streets are from four to six feet, 
but as the grade rises year by year, as new buildings arise, the height of 
cellars increases in a corresponding ratio; and there is no doubt that 
buildings on these streets, erected five years hence, will have six and eight 
feet cellars—a thing which might just as easily have been secured five years 
ago as five years hence, had proprietors and city functionaries been as quick 
to see forward as laterally and backwards. Our dwellings might have cellars of 
any height we desire.

From this view it will be seen that our reputation of being a wet city is not 
due to want of elevation. For all practical purposes, we are as well off as 
New York or New Haven; and in fact as well off as though lifted a hundred feet 
more into the atmosphere. Had we a coarse gravely soil, our streets would be 
as dry as our rivals say we ought to be. Five years since, if you walked out 
upon an adjacent prairie, you might pass land which you would pronounce to be 
on a "level with the Lake," "a dead level," and "incapable of drainage." To-
day it as dry as Rock Prairie. The "level" came along, and said it was 
eighteen feet high, and the ditch that followed the "level" agreed with it. 
Mud Lake, which was of old the cradle of pollywogs and leeches, and swimming 
ground, for ducks, is now tolerably fine ground, and this brings us to the 
next point.

DRAINAGE.

There are within the city four and a half miles of sewers put down at a depth 
of from five to eight feet below the surface. These extend along our principal 
streets, in the business portion of the city, and so far as the removal of 
surface water is concerned, answer, so far as they go, a complete purpose. 
This may be inferred from the facts already stated in regard to cellars, since 
a cellar without a drain is only a pool or an eel pit. Before these sewers 
were put down, no cellar could be dug either upon Lake or Water streets except 
in the dryest of seasons. There was never perhaps a city with features better 
fitted for drainage than this. The peculiar shape of its river, with its two 
branches, gives easy and short access to it from every section of the town; 
while there is, from every square rod of its surface, a gradual and sufficient 
inclination to the adjacent bank.

These sewers only need to be extended as they have been begun to render the 
town as dry as is desirable. As they are, however, of a temporary and 
experimental make, if they are also to be made channels of the filth of the 
town, they will require to be laid in a more permanent manner.

The lands adjacent to the city are correspondingly better provided with 
drainage than those within the limits. A law instituting a commission for the 
drainage of wet lands in Cook County was passed in the Legislature of 1852 and 
went immediately into operation, with Col. Henry Smith, Dr. C. V. Dyer and 
others as Commissioners, with Mr. J. L. .Hanchett, a competent and experienced 
engineer, as Surveyor. The work has been steadily prosecuted until the present 
time, nor has it yet been entirely completed. The assessments, so far, amount 
to above sixty thousand dollars, and seventy-six miles of ditch have been 
excavated. All of it, with the exception of seven or eight miles, is made 
double; that is, it consists of two parallel ditches with the earth thrown up 
between them so as to be used for roads if desired, in the end.

They are all upon section lines excepting one of three or four miles; and 
nearly all empty into the Chicago and Calumet rivers and their branches.

The lands drained are those lying immediately adjacent to the city, extending 
about four miles north, five west, and ten south.

CAPACITY FOR PRODUCTION.

Every city is in a considerable degree dependent on its immediate vicinity for 
articles of consumption. The vegetables consumed here have always, to a large 
extent, been produced here. There is, perhaps, no better soil for their 
production than ours. The warm sands of the Lake Shore avail for all early 
products, and the strong loams on all sides, give ample returns through all 
the season. The soil exposed to the air, and supplied with manures, which may 
always be had in abundance for the hauling, produces with remarkable 
luxuriance, and of superior quality. No finer beets, or onions, or cabbages, 
or pie plant, or asparagus, or celery, can anywhere be found. One thousand 
bushels of onions are sometimes grown to the acre, and other vegetables in 
proportion. All the crops usual to the Northern States flourish luxuriantly, 
and of fruits, none refuse to ripen except such as are forbidden of the 
climate. At the same time grass is the more natural product, and with culture 
can be grown to any extent, either for pasturage or hay, in any direction 
landward from the town.

Of fruits, the apple and plum are more natural to the soil, among the larger 
fruits; while among the smaller, currants, gooseberries, and strawberries, are 
most at home. Cherries, pears and grapes are more or less cultivated, and have 
been these ten years. They are all grown with sufficient skill, but are more 
or less precarious everywhere on this side of the Lake, and some of them on 
all sides of it. Of the large cities in this latitude, we know of no one which 
on the whole has the advantage of ours in respect to agricultural and 
horticultural productions.
 


1855.
 
The railway article which I prepared for 1855 was the last of the series of 
our statistical reviews for that year. It contains a condensed statement of 
all of them. 

The following are the closing paragraphs:

RAILWAYS.

The following list embraces the trunk roads and branches how actually in 
operation which have Chicago as their common focus:

Chicago and Milwaukee............................miles, 85
Racine and Mississippi..................................46
Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac.......................82
Galena and Chicago Union...............................121
Fox River Valley........................................32
Beloit Branch of the Galena.............................20
Beloitand Madison.......................................17
Galena Air Line........................................136
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy.........................210
Quincy Branch..........................................100
Chicago and Rock Island................................181
Mississippi and Missouri, 1st Division..................55
     "              "     2d     "    ..................13
Peoria and Bureau Valley................................47
Peoria and Oquawka......................................44
Chicago, Alton and St. Louis...........................260
Illinois Central.......................................626
Fort Wayne and Chicago..................................20
Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana.................242
Monroe Branch...........................................30
Michigan Central.......................................282
New Albany and Salem...................................284
Total miles of completed Road, 10 Trunk and
  11 Branch Lines.............................miles, 2,933

Taking the sections and branches of the above roads that are in the State of 
Illinois, and adding the lengths to the last four mentioned in our sketch, 
which run east and west through the State, we find that there are now in 
actual operation in the State of Illinois TWO THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED AND TEN 
MILES of railroad. Four years ago to-day there were only ninety-five. The 
world has never before seen so much physical progress in so short a period.

The total number of trains, which now (mid-winter) arrive and depart from the 
city daily amount to fifty-eight passenger and thirty-eight freight trains, in 
all ninety-six. It is safe to add from 12 to 20 per cent, for the number as 
soon as the spring business opens, so that on the first of May the number will 
be at least from 110 to 115.

We know not how the earnings of our roads will compare with those centering in 
other cities. Let them publish a table showing, their receipts and the public 
will be able to make the comparison. Here is ours.

The following table shows the receipts of the railroads centering in Chicago, 
for the year 1855:

                                 Passengers    Freight       Mail, etc.        
Total
Chi. & Mil., our estimate        ------        ------        ------           
275,000.00
Chi., St. P. & Fond du Lac          25,507.38      47,721.41 ------            
73,528.79
G. & C. U.                         844,421.50   1,404,294.19    26,895.09   
2,272,610.78
Chi., B. & Q.                      810,062.83     432,570.13    13,221.43   
1,255,854.39
Chi. & R. I.                       728,966.26     570,712.69    27,350.00   
1,327,028.95
C., A. & St. L., our estimate    ------        ------        ------           
600,000.00
Illinois Central                   693,048.93     630,934.91   208,134.97   
1,532,118.81
M. S. & N. I.                    ------        ------        ------         
2,595,630.22
Mich. Central                    1,461,414.41   1,098,650.15    90,170.92   
2,650,235.37
N. A. & Salem                      345,588.54     348,555.54    22,020.00     
716,193.78

Total                                                                      
13,298,201.09


In the above table we have not footed up the receipts for passengers, freight, 
mails and miscellaneous, as they were not furnished us by all the roads. We 
think, however, that the total receipts, more than thirteen millions and a 
quarter, will do very well for a city, which only four years ago had only 
forty miles of railroad completed and in operation.

As this is the last of four leading statistical articles, published since the 
first of January, it remains that we should give a brief synopsis, that our 
readers may see at a glance the progress of the last and the three previous 
years. We present the following

GENERAL SUMMARY.

Total number of miles of railroad centering in Chicago Feb. 16th, 
1852...................40
Total number of miles now completed and in 
operation..................................2,933
Increase in four years, or more than 700 miles per 
year...............................2,893
Total number of miles projected, to be completed in from five to eight 
years..........6,449
Total number of miles of railroad in operation in the State of Illinois Feb. 
  16th, 1852, four years 
ago.............................................................95
Total number of miles now in 
operation................................................2,410
Increase in the State in four 
years...................................................2,315
The total earnings of all the railroads (40 miles) leading into the city 
during the year 1851, 
say...........................................................$40,000
Total earnings of the road leading into the city for the year 
1855..............$13,298,201.09
Increase in four years, thirteen and a quarter millions of 
dollars..............$13,258,201.09
Total number of trains arriving and departing now (mid-winter) daily, 96.
  Add 12 to 20 per cent, when the spring business opens and the number 
  will be 
about.........................................................................1
10
Number of points at which the Chicago railroads reach the 
Mississippi.....................8
Population of Chicago in 
1852........................................................38,783
Population of Chicago in 1855, or nearly 150 per cent, in three 
years................83,509
Total receipts of grain at Chicago for the year 
1854....................bushels, 15,804,423
Total receipts of grain for 1855. Increase about 33 per 
cent............bushels, 20,487,953
Total shipments of grain from the port of Chicago for the year 
1855.....bushels, 16,633,813
Total number of hogs handled in Chicago for 1854-
5..................................138,515
Total value of the beef packed in Chicago in 
1855................................$1,152,420.96
Receipts of lumber at the port of Chicago for 
1855........................feet, 326,553,467
Now laid up in the port of Chicago, steamers, propellers, sail vessels, 
etc.............233
Total number of vessels arriving in Chicago during the last 
year......................5,410
The total tonnage of vessels arriving in this port for 
1855................tons,  1,608,845
Amount of imposts received on foreign goods at the Chicago Custom 
House............$296,844.75
Total amount of capital invested in manufactures during the year 1855;
  showing $2,075,000 increase over the previous 
year.............................$6,295,000
Total number of men employed in manufacturing (increase in 1855, 
3,740)...............8,740
Total value of manufactured articles, (increase in 1855, 
$3,161,491)............$11,031,491
Total amount expended in improvements, stores, dwellings, hotels, etc.,
  (increase in 1855, 
$1,296,344).................................................$3,735,254

Had we time and space we might be tempted to dwell at length upon the glowing 
picture, suggested by the facts in the above general summary. The figures are 
themselves much more eloquent and absorbing than any language at our command. 
When the citizens of Chicago and the State of Illinois are charged with 
exaggeration by those who dwell in the finished cities and States at the East, 
they can point with Confidence and pride to the above facts, and 
say, "gentlemen, here are the figures, sober, stubborn figures, which cannot 
lie." Such figures are more potent and convincing than a thousand arguments, 
and while they afford an index to a just conception of what the West and its 
great commercial centre now are, they point with unerring significance to a 
bright and glorious future. It has been asserted that the kingdoms of Europe 
were sifted of their most enterprising and their noblest men to settle the 
American colonies; and it may with equal justice be said, that all the States 
north of Tennessee and the Carolinas, have sent their most energetic, 
intelligent citizens, with a mighty host of untiring, energetic men from 
Europe, to settle and subdue that vast and magnificent country lying between 
the western shore of Lake Michigan and the Rocky Mountains. Could any other 
men and any other country have produced such results?

In canvassing these results, it should be remembered that twenty years ago 
Chicago was not a city. She was only an insignificant town at the southern end 
of Lake Michigan, and within that period, the wolves during the night roamed 
all over wThere the city now stands. It is but little more than twenty-two 
years since the Indians were removed west of the Mississippi, under the 
direction of Col. RUSSELL. Twenty years ago only an occasional schooner of two 
or three hundred tons visited Chicago; two hundred and thirty-three vessels 
are now wintering in her harbor, and the arrivals for the past year were five 
thousand four hundred and ten. Then Chicago imported most of her provisions; 
last year the beef packed in the city was worth $1,152,420.96. She exported 
16,633,818 bushels of grain, the value of which must have been from twelve to 
fifteen millions of dollars. She is now acknowledged to be the greatest 
primary grain port in the world, and purchasers from Europe find it for their 
advantage to buy largely in this market. The wheat that last year was grown on 
the prairies of Illinois, is now feeding the far-off subjects of Victoria and 
Napoleon. During the last year the citizens of Chicago manufactured articles 
to the value of eleven millions of dollars, and invested three millions seven 
hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars in substantial improvements. Her 
lumber trade reached the enormous amount of three hundred and twenty-six and a 
quarter millions of feet. When we contemplate our railroad system the progress 
is still more marked and amazing. Four years ago we had only forty miles of 
road leading into the city; now we have 2,933 miles completed and in 
operation. Our lines reach the Mississippi at eight different points. Nearly a 
hundred, and as soon as navigation opens, more than a hundred trains of cars 
will arrive and depart daily; and, if possible, more astonishing than all this 
is the fact that, for the last year, the earnings of these roads have reached 
the enormous sum of thirteen and a quarter millions of dollars. The population 
of Chicago has increased, in the mean time, from thirty-eight to eighty-five 
thousand—nearly one hundred and fifty per cent, in the short space of three 
years.

And yet, for all these railroads, Chicago, in her corporate capacity, has 
never expended a single dollar. Eastern and foreign capital, proverbially 
cautious, and even skeptical though it be, has done the mighty work. There has 
been no spasmodic effort to accomplish it. All has been done quietly; the 
wealth of soil, and the mineral treasures beneath it, affording a sure basis 
for a profitable, return for every investment. Compared with other cities, 
Chicago owes but a mere nominal sum. 

Her principal debt is for her water works, and the revenue derived from water 
rents will, ere long, pay the interest, and in the end liquidate the debt. She 
has now adopted a general and it is believed an efficient plan of sewerage, 
for which an additional loan will be made, but the advantages to be derived 
from it will be a hundred fold more than the cost. Most of the streets yet 
remain to be paved, from the necessities of the case, plank having been 
heretofore used; but for this the adjoining property is taxed, and we see no 
occasion for an increase of her debt beyond the expense of the sewerage and 
the water works.
 
Does any one ask, are these things to continue? Is the progress of the past 
four years to go forward in the same ratio? These are questions we dare not 
answer.    

Reader, while perusing these paragraphs, place your map before you, attend 
carefully to a few facts, and then answer these questions for yourself. 
Between the western shore of Lake Michigan and the Rocky Mountains there are 
700,000 square miles of territory, enough to make 14 States as large as Ohio. 
The productions of 50,000 square miles of that territory, certainly with not 
half its resources developed, have made Chicago what she is in less than 
twenty, and built her thousands of miles of railroads in four years. Great and 
astonishing as have been the achievements of our railroad kings, they have as 
yet merely penetrated the borders of this vast and magnificent country. For 
richness of soil, the character and extent of its mineral treasures, for 
manufacturing and commercial resources, and capacity for sustaining a dense 
population, its superior cannot be found upon the face of the globe.

The progress of the city for the last four years has indeed been wonderful; 
but all intelligent men know that it has by no means been able to keep pace 
with the growth of the country that is tributary to it. As fast as the 
resistless advancing wave of population rolls over this vast fertile country, 
the railroad rushes onward and pours its commerce and its wealth into the lap 
of Chicago. Look at our mighty inland seas. Suppose it to be May. Yonder noble 
steamer is bound a thousand miles away to the head of Lake Superior; that 
propeller making the harbor has just arrived from Buffalo, a voyage of another 
thousand miles; and that joyous barque loaded with wheat has cleared for 
Ogdensburg, thirteen hundred miles, away beyond Lake Ontario on the St. 
Lawrence. Four years ago the commerce of these lakes had already exceeded in 
value the entire foreign commerce of the whole Union. And now with these facts 
before him, situated, as Chicago, is, at the head of these vast inland seas 
and holding the key to their commerce; with her railroads piercing the vast 
country that is tributary to her in all directions; and with a ceaseless, ever-
deepening stream of the vigorous, the intelligent and the enterprising 
population of the Eastern States and of Europe, rolling over it with ever-
increasing power; with the achievements and the progress of the last four 
years before him, he would be a bold, almost an insane reasoner who should 
dare to predict what the next ten years will accomplish.

Again our task is finished. The figures which represent the commerce, the 
manufactures and the improvements of our city for the past year, and the 
condition and the earnings of our railroads, have been placed before the 
readers of the Democratic Press. If our labors, year by year, in this regard 
have promoted in anywise the interests of our city and our great and glorious 
Northwest; if they have reached the dwellers among the bleak and barren hills, 
and the rock-ribbed mountains of the Eastern and the Middle States, and 
enticed the more enterprising away toward the setting sun; if they, have had, 
or hereafter may have, any influence in changing our broad prairies into 
fruitful fields, and in bordering our beautiful groves with ample farm houses—
the homes of comfort, plenty, intelligence, virtue and peace—though among the 
many millions who are soon to people this mighty valley our names should be 
forgotten, may we not hope that we have contributed somewhat to the happiness 
and the progress of our race. Let us be assured of that, and we have obtained 
our greatest and most coveted reward.


THE GEORGIAN BAY CANAL.

Like all those who indulge in pets and pet measures, it is quite likely, that 
more space is given to the Georgian Bay Canal than it deserves; but as I still 
think the vast commerce of the Northwest will in some way be quite sure to 
force the building of it at no distant day, I deem it best to preserve a 
record of the articles and the measures that secured the survey of the route 
and attracted very wide attention to the project.

Probably the first knowledge that the people of Chicago and the Northwest ever 
had of the route for a ship-canal from the Georgian Bay to Toronto, was 
derived from a paragraph in an article by the late Andrew Harvey, signed 
ALPHA, on the Commercial Position of Chicago; published in the Democratic 
Press, February 3rd, 1853. He described the route in a general way and gave a 
very correct estimate of the effect its construction would have on the 
commerce of the city, and of the Northwest. He spoke of the project as having 
for a long time been discussed in Canada, but nothing had ever been done even 
to determine whether the work was feasible.

A few days after, while studying the map for some subject in relation to the 
growth or the development of the Northwest, I happened to notice Lake Simcoe, 
and the narrow strip of country between it and the Georgian Bay on the one 
side, and Lake Ontario on the other, and remembering the article of Mr. 
Harvey, I determined to find out all I could in reference to the feasibility 
of the route for a ship-canal. Going down to Water street I found Col. G. S. 
Hubbard, and Capt. McIntosh, who gave me the facts, from which I prepared and 
published next morning, February 10th, the following article. It was headed—

SHIP CANAL FROM LAKE HURON TO TORONTO.

Our correspondent "Alpha," a few days ago stated that the plan of a ship-canal 
had been proposed, several years since, from Lake Huron through Lake Simcoe to 
Lake Ontario, at Toronto. The matter at once interested a large number of our 
business men, as well as ourselves, and we have been making inquiries in 
regard to the practicability of the work. Years ago our fellow citizen, 
Guerdon S. Hubbard, Esq., came from Montreal to this city with a party of 
voyagers, by this route. He expresses the conviction that the work is entirely 
feasible. Yesterday, with one of Mitchell's large maps of the United States 
before us, we learned a variety of facts from Capt. David McIntosh, which 
will; be interesting to our readers. Capt. McIntosh commanded a steamer 
running on Lake Simcoe for three years, and is perfectly familiar with the 
whole country.

Lying to the northeast of Lake Huron, and generally included in the same name, 
is in fact another lake called Manitouline, (Georgian Bay) nearly as large as 
lake Ontario. At the southeast end of this lake is Notawasaga Bay, into which 
a river of the same name enters. This river is navigable for some distance, 
and from the head of navigation to Kempenfeldt Bay, an arm of Lake Simcoe, is 
a distance of only twelve miles. Capt. Mcintosh says this is one of the most 
beautiful lakes on the Western Continent, seventy miles long and twenty-eight 
broad. The country between the Notawasaga river and Lake Simcoe is free from 
hills and very favorable to the construction of such a canal. This route, both 
Mr. Hubbard and Captain Mcintosh think, would be much more favorable for a 
canal than to improve the navigation of the Severn, the outlet of the lake, as 
it is much more direct, and the canal could be built, with much less expense. 

Having arrived at Lake Simcoe, let us see what obstacles are to be overcome in 
reaching Toronto. On the map a small river is put clown as entering Lake 
Simcoe from the south, called the Holland river. This river Captain Mcintosh 
says is navigable twelve miles, and from the head of navigation on this stream 
to Toronto, the distance is only thirty-six miles. This would give us at most 
forty-eight miles of canal to build.

The greatest difficulty that occurs to us is the feeding of the summit level 
between Lake Simcoe and Manitouline and Ontario. But from the appearance of 
the map before us, and from the information furnished us by Captain Mcintosh, 
this obstacle, it would seem, can be readily surmounted. The summit of the 
country between Lake Simcoe and Toronto lies on a low ridge about sixteen 
miles south of Lake Simcoe, and if the canal were put through this range, it 
could be fed from Lake Simcoe through to Lake Ontario. Lake Simcoe, so far as 
we can learn, is about 120 feet above Lake Manitouline, and 450 above Lake 
Ontario. Immediately at the north end of Lake Simcoe is a fall of some ninety 
feet. A dam might probably be thrown across the Severn above the falls, 
raising the level of the lake very considerably so as to make it feed both 
summits. If it should not furnish water sufficient to feed the canal, the 
Trent, a large river running a few miles east of the lake, can very easily be 
turned into it, and will furnish any amount of water that may be necessary.

Though the cutting should be one, two or even four hundred feet for the first 
few miles south of Lake Simcoe, the necessities of commerce will fully warrant 
the expenditure. Captain Mcintosh thinks the whole expense of the work would 
be far less than the cost of the Welland canal. It will be of vastly greater 
importance to our city and the entire West.

Let us suppose for a moment that the St. Lawrence is opened to our shipping, 
and we have reciprocal free trade with Canada. Our produce could be shipped 
direct to Europe with only a single transshipment at Montreal, and that only 
from vessel to vessel. The trade that would at once spring up between this 
city and Europe no sane man would now dare to estimate. And again goods would 
be imported direct to this city from Europe and Asia, and Chicago would become 
the great store-house and distributing centre of the whole Mississippi valley. 
Our warehouses would rival those of the Atlantic cities, and our merchants, 
the expressive language of the Scriptures, would be "princes." The advantages 
to our Canadian neighbors would be equally great. Montreal and Toronto, 
especially, have an immense interest at stake in the success of this 
enterprise. Has the proposed route ever been surveyed? Will our Canadian 
friends "agitate" the matter and give us their opinions and give us what facts 
they may have upon its practicability?

If nature has thrown "insurmountable" obstacles in the way we give it up. What 
we of the West want is free access to the ocean by every possible outlet. Our 
commerce and immense productions will tax them all to their utmost capacity.

The late George Steele, a sturdy Scotchman who had lived several years in 
Canada, and one of the best business men Chicago ever had, sent marked copies 
of the Press containing this article to all the leading papers in Canada, and 
probably every one in the entire country published the article and had 
something to say upon the subject. We felt on this side that the route for the 
canal was in their country, and it was not our place to offer any advice as to 
its construction or the means by which it could be accomplished. It continued 
to be more or less discussed, and on June 12th, 1855, at the close of a long 
article on IMPROVING THE NAVIGATION" OF THE ST. LAWRENCE, I published the 
following paragraphs:

We have another suggestion to make to the commercial men of Toronto and 
Montreal, and to the Canadians generally, which we think well worthy of their 
attention. It is that instead of enlarging the Welland Canal, they at once 
build one of sufficient capacity to pass our largest propellers from the head 
of the Georgian Bay to Toronto. It will save at least 500 miles of lake 
navigation, avoiding the St. Clair Flats, the Detroit river, Lake Erie, and 
the Welland canal. We have understood from those who have examined the ground 
that the route is perfectly feasible, and there are only forty-eight miles of 
canal to build. Build this canal, and Chicago is practically as near to 
Montreal as it is to Buffalo, for so far as we can judge from measuring on the 
map, there is not a hundred miles difference in the distance which a propeller 
would have to steam in making the two ports. It is true that the tolls on the 
canal would make the freights to Montreal dearer than to Buffalo; but when you 
come to foot up the cost of transporting pork, beef, flour, and produce to New 
York or to Europe, it would show figures vastly in favor of the Canadian 
route. Will not our Canadian friends examine this subject and give us the 
result of their investigations?

The entire Northwest is deeply interested in the opening of all new lines to 
the seaboard, and in whatever will increase the capacity of those now in 
operation. So rapid is the settlement of our magnificent prairies going 
forward, and so vast are their agricultural resources, that every line of 
communication is already taxed almost to its utmost capacity, and five years 
will find them all utterly incapable to do the business which will force 
itself upon them. Let the Canadian capitalists build their canals as fast as 
possible, the West will crowd them with business as soon as they are finished.

The Press of June 12th, 1855, contains another article on the same subject. In 
it I give further facts derived from Hon. Thomas Steers, of Barre, Lake 
Simcoe, and a subscription is proposed for surveying the route, which Mr. 
Steers started with a handsome sum. Other subscriptions were made in Canada, 
and I got some hundreds of dollars subscribed by our banks and business men.

The Press of July 25th, 1854, has another article in which is quoted the 
action of the Toronto Board of Trade, in which a committee is appointed to 
raise subscriptions and arrange for a survey.

July 30th, a meeting of the Chicago Board of Trade is reported, and favorable 
resolutions were passed. A committee, to raise funds was appointed, and to act 
with committees of other cities. George Steele, Thos. Richmond, B. S. 
Shepherd, T. Jones, C. T. Wheeler, Hiram Wheeler, Wm. Bross, Thos. Steers, and 
R. S. King, were the committee. August 1st, I published a column of extracts 
from Canadian papers, and editorial on the same subject. Important information 
is added to what was then known in regard to the project. Finally, the Toronto 
Board of Trade invited delegates from similar bodies in the lake cities to 
meet there on the 13th of September, 1855, to elicit whatever facts there 
might be bearing on the feasibility of the work. Geo. Steele, Thos. Richmond, 
and myself, were appointed delegates. Mr. Richmond could not go; Mr. S. and 
myself attended. In order to show the Canadians the importance of the work as 
best I could, I made the following address to the convention:

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Committee:

Mr. Crocker has presented you with some very interesting figures in relation 
to the lessening of the cost of transportation, if facilities for using larger 
vessels be afforded. Will you allow me to give you some facts which may assist 
you, and more especially that portion of the business public who may not have 
examined the subject, to appreciate the importance of a ship canal from the 
Georgian Bay to Toronto. It is proposed to construct another great highway for 
the commerce of the Upper Lakes to Lake Ontario, and thence to the ocean. 
Whether the labor and expense necessary to complete the work, if they fall 
within a reasonable estimate, after a careful survey shall have been made, 
would be usefully and profitably employed, must be determined by the present 
commerce of those lakes and its prospective extent and value in the future. 
The growth of that commerce for the last twenty years is one of the most 
astonishing facts in the commercial history of the world, and forms an index 
by which we may judge what is likely to be its history hereafter. The report 
of Mr. Andrews made to the Secretary of War, under the direction of the 
Congress of the United States, gives the value of the commerce of the lakes 
for the year 1851 at 326,000,000 of dollars, being more than the entire 
foreign commerce of the Union. We have no means to determine how much of this 
trade is due to Lake Michigan, but we have some figures by which we can form 
some idea of the value of that trade for the past year; and if we consider the 
extent of the territory from which that trade now comes, and the vast region 
from which it is TO COME, it will enable us to form some idea of the 
importance of the proposed canal to the future commerce of the lakes.	

The territory which has built up the city of Chicago, does not extend beyond 
the Mississippi, say two hundred miles west, and a hundred miles north by a 
hundred and fifty miles south would mark its bound aries in these directions. 
This gives us an area of fifty thousand square miles. Any of the gentlemen 
present, who may have traveled over the country west of Chicago, know that its 
resources are but very imperfectly developed. What was the trade of Chicago 
for the past year? She shipped 12,902,310 bushels of grain, making her the 
largest primary grain port in the world. She packed and shipped alive over 
100,000 hogs. There were slaughtered 23,691 cattle, and 10,957 were shipped 
East alive.

The lumber receipts amounted to 248,336,783 feet.

The arrivals of vessels were 443 steamers, 409 propellers, 114 barques, 436 
brigs, 3,049 schooners, and 70 sloops—total, 4,527. The total tonnage as 
registered in the Custom House, was 984,144 tons. The total receipts of the 
Custom House were for

1854.........................$575,802.85
1853..........................260,671.17

Increase in a single year....$315,131.68

The population of Chicago for a series of years will enable you to form some 
conception of its rapid growth, and the development of the resources of the 
country west of it:

1840.......4,479
1843.......7,580
1845......12,088
1846......14,169
1847......16,859
1848......20,023
1849......23,047
1850......28,269
1852......38,733
1853......60,652
1854......65,872
1855......83,509

The figures for the present year as given in the above table include our 
marine population, which were not included in the amount as published in some 
of the papers. 

The total number without the marine is 80,028. The value of the manufactured 
articles as given in the census just taken is $9,827,700.

These are a specimen of some of the items in the trade of Chicago for the past 
year. What the trade of Waukegan, Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee was, we have 
no means of determining; but they were of course very considerable, and tended 
very materially to swell the trade of Lake Michigan. It should be remembered 
that so far as Chicago is concerned her trade was gathered from about 50,000 
square miles.
 
Let us now turn our attention to the country west of Lake Michigan and 
endeavor to form some idea of its extent and resources, that we may estimate 
as best we may what the trade of Lake Michigan is to be a few years hence. Let 
us take a stand-point at the mouth of the south fork of the Platte River, say 
nine hundred miles west of Chicago. Draw a line through this point north and 
south, and, though we are a long way east of the Rocky Mountains, call the 
rest of the country south of the Black Hills a desert. It will be observed 
that all the territory on the Yellow Stone and the Upper Missouri lies west of 
this line.

For our north and south line we begin at or near Alton at about the thirty-
ninth degree of north latitude and go up to the northern boundary of Minnesota 
and Nebraska. The total distance will not vary much from six hundred and fifty 
miles. This gives us an area of territory of 585,000 square miles. Add to this 
115,000 square miles for the beautiful country on the Upper Missouri and the 
Yellow Stone and we have seven hundred thousand square miles of as fine 
country as can be found upon the face of the earth, whose productions and 
trade will swell beyond the figures of the wildest fancy the commerce of the 
lakes.*

It may be said that our north and south line reaches too far south. All the 
trade as far south as Alton will not seek the lake route, but a large portion 
of it will; and as you extend the radius west, say to Independence, Missouri, 
the line becomes very direct through Quincy to Chicago.

It is very easy to repeat the figures— 700,000 which represent the number of 
square miles contained in the territory we have named; but it is a far 
different thing to form a definite idea of the immense country which yet 
remains to be developed Avest of the Lakes. Let us make a few comparisons to 
assist us in our estimate of the future of the great Northwest.

It should be remarked, however, that there are many beautiful valleys in the 
Rocky Mountains, capable of sustaining a large population, and more fertile 
and beautiful than Switzerland, and enough to form half a dozen such States.

Add up the number of square miles in all the States east of the Mississippi, 
except Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida, and you will find that you will have 
only 700,000. If you are startled and can scarcely believe the figures, take a 
newspaper and cut it in the shape of the territory I have named east of the 
Mississippi, and lay it on that west of Lake Michigan,

-----------------------
*This geographical fact was, so far as I know, first proved in a long article 
prepared by myself, June 27th, of the same year.
-----------------------
 
and study the map in every possible form and you will be forced to the 
conclusion that the Northwest contains a territory larger than the twenty-
three older States we have alluded to east of the Mississippi. These States 
contain some 20,000,000 inhabitants.

But again, England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland contain in all 115,000 square 
miles, only one-sixth of the Territory of the Northwest, and have a population 
of 26,000,000. Were the territory we have named equally populous, it would 
contain 156,000,000. Turkey, Austria and France, have in the aggregate 361,000 
square miles and a population of 84,000,000. Need it be wondered at that in 
speaking of the Northwest, Western men are obliged to use terms which 
venerable old fogies regard as extravagant and even absurd? The simple fact is 
that this territory is large enough to make fourteen States of 50,000 square 
miles each, and is vastly more fertile and capable of sustaining a population 
many times larger than all the older States of the Union.

A few words as to the resources of the country under consideration. In 
minerals it is especially rich. It contains the largest and the richest 
deposits of lead and copper that are known to exist anywhere upon the globe. I 
need hardly say that I allude to the copper mines of Lake Superior, and the 
lead district of which Galena is the centre. Iron and coal are also found in 
great abundance.

In speaking of its climate and productions, it should be known that the 
isothermal or climatic lines bend far away to the north as we go west toward 
the Rocky Mountains. If we mistake not, it is nearly as warm at the north bend 
of the Missouri as it is at Chicago. Owing to this fact and the richness of 
the country, the buffalo range nearly up to the south line of British America.

The agricultural resources of these 700,000 square miles are absolutely beyond 
the power of man to estimate. It is the opinion of some of the best informed 
men that the great plains over which the buffalo now range in countless 
thousands, must after all become the great corn-growing sections of the Union. 
There too will be reared the countless herds of cattle and the hogs, driven to 
Chicago, to be packed in beef and pork to feed the Eastern States, with an 
abundance to spare for all the nations of Europe.

And now, Mr. President and gentlemen, with the vast extent and the 
agricultural and mineral resources of the country west of the Lakes before us, 
what is the commerce of these lakes to be in the next twenty years? It is 
settling with most astonishing rapidity. Our railroads are piercing this vast 
territory in all directions. They now reach the Mississippi at Cairo, Alton, 
Burlington, Rock Island and Dubuque; and more than a hundred trains a day 
arrive at and depart from Chicago. They will soon be extended through 
Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, and no one can tell where they will end till 
they reach the Pacific. If the products of the West, gathered from only 50,000 
square miles, have built up a city of 83,000 people in the short space of 
eighteen years—for it is only a few months more than that since it was 
incorporated—who dares to estimate what the next twenty years will accomplish? 
I once heard Captain Hugunin, a veteran sailor of our city, who commenced his 
eventful career on Lake Ontario in 1812, after referring to the growth and the 
endless prospective value of the products of the West, say that "the great 
God, when he made the mighty West, made also the Lakes and the mighty St. 
Lawrence to float its commerce to the ocean;" and I might add, as well attempt 
to lead the boiling current of Niagara to the sea in hose pipe, as to ship the 
products of these 700,000 square miles to the ocean by the Erie and the Well 
and Canals, and all the railroads now or hereafter to be constructed. The West 
needs the Georgian Bay Canal and every other avenue to the ocean that can 
possibly be opened.

The result was the survey of the route by Kivas Tully, and Col. R. B. Mason, 
of Chicago, as consulting engineer. It was proved perfectly practicable but 
expensive, costing by their estimate at prices then ruling, $22,170,750. The 
financial crash of 1857-8 stopped all further proceedings in regard to it; but 
the charter for the work passed into the hands of a Company of which F. C. 
Capreol, Esq., is, and for a long time has been, President. By his 
indefatigable labors the enterprise has been kept before the public and its 
feasibility and great practical value to Canada and the Northwest has been 
proved and thoroughly illustrated. Pity it is that the work is not likely to 
be completed in his lifetime. It will be, when completed, in my judgment, to 
the commerce of the Lakes what the Suez Canal is to that of Europe and the 
world.

A brief statement of the character of the work will be found in an address 
made at Des Moines, January 22nd, 1873, to be found towards the close of this 
volume.

Additional Comments:
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
HISTORICAL AND COMMERCIAL STATISTICS, SKETCHES, Facts and Figures,
REPUBLISHED FROM THE "DAILY DEMOCRATIC PRESS."
 
What I Remember of Early Chicago; 
A LECTURE, DELIVERED IN McCORMICK'S HALL, JANUARY 23, 1876,
(Tribune, January 24th,)
By WILLIAM BROSS, Ex-Lieut. Governor of Illinois.	
CHICAGO: JANSEN, MCCLURG & Co., BOOKSELLERS, PUBLISHERS, ETC.
1876

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