Cook County IL Archives Obituaries.....Streeter, Capt George Wellington January 12, 1921
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2006, 10:14 pm

Unknown, Jan 1921
Capt. G. W. Streeter

Captain Streeter of Chicago Dies

1921, newspaper unknown

Chicago, Jan. 24 – Captain George Wellington Streeter, chief figure in one of 
the most picturesque legal struggles ever enacted in Chicago is dead.

Captain Streeter was claimant to the title for a large section of the north 
side, along Lake Michigan and commonly known as Streeterville.

His death occurred Saturday night on a little houseboat where he made his 
home, it became known today.

Captain Streeter, 80 years old, has been fighting since 1886 to establish his 
claim to one of the most valuable sections of Chicago’s lake front.  In that 
year, his schooner, the Reutan, stranded on the beach during a storm.  Captain 
Streeter built a breakwater about the stranded Bessel 450 feet off shore and 
made it his home.

The rapidly shifting sands filled in the space between the boat and the shore 
and in time 193 acres was added to the city’s area.  It was this land which 
Captain Streeter fought for.

In 1915, the court ruled that Streeter had no title to the property and his 
brick castle, which had been succeeded by the steamer Domicile was wrecked by 
deputy sheriffs.

The site of Captain Streeter’s “deestrict” is part of Chicago’s famous “Gold 
coast” and is now covered by more than a dozen skyscraper apartment buildings 
and hotels.  The land is valued at more than $50,000.000.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/cook/obits/s/streeter490nob.txt

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