623 M. CLEVELAND, Pop. 796,836. (Train 3 passes 11:55p; No. 41, 4:35a;
No. 25,3:30a; No. 19, 8:20a. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 7:20p; No. 26,
8:35p; No. 16, 11:30p; No. 22, 2:56a.)
[Illustration: City of Cleveland from Reservoir Walk (1873)]
A trading post was established on the present site of Cleveland as early
as 1785 and ten years later Capt. Moses Cleaveland, leader of a small
band of pioneers and agent of the Connecticut Land Co., surveyed the
ground and planted the nucleus of the present thriving city--now fifth
in size in the country. Capt. Cleaveland, in travelling from Connecticut
into the Northwest, followed closely the present route of the New York
Central Lines, crossing N.Y. State to Buffalo and then from Buffalo
along the shore of Lake Erie.
At that time the southern shore of Lake Erie was part of the famous
Western Reserve territory, consisting of 3,250,000 acres of land,
certain parts of which Connecticut ceded to her citizens as compensation
for their losses from "fire and damage" at the hands of the British
during the Revolutionary War. These lands were sometimes known as "Fire
Lands."
The Western Reserve was a part of the territory immediately west
of the Pennsylvania line, and extending westward therefrom 120 M.
Connecticut held and "reserved" this territory to herself in
1780, when she ceded to the general government all her rights and
claims to the other lands in the West. Later Conn. ceded the
Reserve itself, but not before she had sold much of it to the
Conn. Land Co., and the latter had begun the sale and disposition
of all the lands so acquired, east of the Cuyahoga River. Until
after 1815 no lands west of that river were open to entrance or
survey, and settlers ventured there at their own risk. This was
the Indian Boundary Line, established in 1795, and beyond it the
aborigines had exclusive right of occupancy.
It was for the purpose of surveying and developing these lands that
Capt. Cleaveland undertook his expeditions into the Western Reserve. The
first of these expeditions (1795) was composed of 50 men, women and
children who arrived at Ft. Independence (now Conneaut) on Lake Erie,
July 4, 1796. Pushing on further, they arrived at the present site of
Cleveland, and in a few days the first log cabin was erected at the
mouth of the Cuyahoga River.
To keep the commissary supplied was no easy problem in the new
settlement. Sometimes they ate boiled rattlesnake in default of
anything better. On one occasion, while the little band of
settlers was assembled in prayer in one of the log cabins,
someone espied a bear swimming across the Cuyahoga River. The
coming of the bear was looked upon as providential, and the
congregation suspended the prayer-meeting, killed the bear, and
then returned to their devotions.
Capt. Cleaveland's plans for his new settlement were ambitious, and he
built a number of substantial roads through the forests, usually
following the old Indian trails, now the right of way of the New York
Central and other lines. With the opening of the Ohio Canal to the Ohio
River (1832), Cleveland became the natural outlet on Lake Erie for
Ohio's extensive agricultural and mineral products. The discovery and
commercial exploitation (beginning about 1840) of large deposits of iron
ore in the Lake Superior region placed Cleveland in a strategic position
between these vast ore fields and the coal and oil resources of Ohio,
Pa., and W. Va., and it is from this time that the city's great
commercial importance really dates.
[Illustration: Moses Cleaveland
Moses Cleaveland (1754-1806) was born at Canterbury, Conn., and
graduated from Yale. After serving in the U.S. Army, where he
attained the rank of captain, he practiced law and entered the
Connecticut legislature. Later, he organized the Connecticut Land
Co., which in 1795 purchased a large portion of the Western
Reserve.]
In 1836 Cleveland had been chartered as a city. The name, though chosen
in honour of Capt. Cleaveland, had been abbreviated to its present form
some years before. Tradition credits the changed form to a newspaper
which left out the letter "a" in order to make the word fit a headline.
The building of the railways during the decade 1850-1860, and the
stimulus to industry during the Civil War, when Cleveland supplied large
quantities of iron products and clothing to the government, gave impetus
to the city's growth. With a population of only 1,076 in 1830 and 6,071
in 1840, Cleveland had become in 1870 a city of 92,829 (more than double
its population in 1860). Thirty years later (1900) the population had
grown to 381,768 and in 1920 it was 796,836, an increase of 42 per cent
over 1910.
The later history of Cleveland has been distinguished for some notable
experiments in city planning, popular education and municipal ownership
(particularly with respect to street railways). The street railway
situation had been a source of trouble ever since 1899, when a strike of
serious proportions occurred. Mobs attacked the cars, some of which were
blown up with dynamite. In 1901 Tom Johnson was first elected mayor,
and, largely as a result of his advocacy, municipal ownership became a
greater issue in Cleveland than in any other great city in the country.
Tom Johnson (1854-1911) was a successful business man who entered
politics on a reform platform. He was an ardent single-taxer, and
in spite of the fact that he was financially interested in street
railways, steel plants and other industries, a staunch advocate
of municipal ownership. He served as mayor of Cleveland for 4
successive terms (from 1901 to 1909) and was later elected to
Congress. Single Taxers were much pleased by his strategy in
getting an entire book--Henry George's _Progress and
Poverty_--printed in the Congressional Record.
Johnson and his followers demanded a 3-cent fare on the street railways
and in 1906 it was actually put into effect. The private owners were
compelled in 1908 to lease their property to a municipal holding
company, but in 1910 (after Johnson's defeat for re-election in the
preceding year), the street railway system was leased to a new
corporation, the rate of fare under the new arrangement to be based on
an adequate return to the investors.
Cleveland was the home of Mark Hanna who became famous in national
Republican politics.
Marcus A. Hanna was born in Lisbon, Ohio, in 1837, removed with
his father in 1852 to Cleveland, where he graduated from Western
Reserve University, and in 1867 entered into partnership with his
father-in-law (Daniel P. Rhodes) in the coal and iron business.
Under Hanna's guidance the business prospered enormously, but it
was not till somewhat late in life that he became prominent in
Republican affairs in Cleveland. As chairman of the National
Republican Committee in 1896 he managed with great skill the
campaign against Bryan and free silver, and came to be
acknowledged as a leader of great adroitness, tact, and resource.
He entered the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 1898, and was one of the
principal advisers of the McKinley administration. He took a
vital interest in problems affecting labor and capital and was
one of the organizers in 1901 and first president of the National
Civic Federation. He died in 1904 at Washington.
The Cleveland Chamber of Commerce has done much in the betterment of
local politics. It was also instrumental in 1902 in securing the
adoption of the "Group Plan" by which some of the principal public
buildings are arranged in a quadrangle on the bluff overlooking Lake
Erie. Cleveland appropriated $25,000,000 to promote the plan. On one
side of the quadrangle (nearest the lake) are the courthouse and city
hall; on the opposite side and 2,000 ft. south are the post office and
library ($2,500,000). There is to be a Mall 600 ft. wide, with public
buildings on either side, connecting the court-house and city hall with
the post office and library. The granite buildings forming this
quadrangle were designed under the supervision of Arnold Brunner, John
M. Carrere and D.H. Burnham.
In education the city has made an innovation known as the "Cleveland
plan" which seeks to minimize school routine, red tape and frequent
examinations. Great stress is put on domestic and manual training
courses, and promotion in the grammar schools is made dependent on the
general knowledge and development of the pupil as estimated by a teacher
who is supposed to make a careful study of the individual. There are in
Cleveland 120 public schools and 44 public libraries. The principal
institutions of higher education are the Western Reserve University with
2,800 students, St. Ignatius College (Roman Catholic), and the Case
School of Applied Science.
With its 12 M. of shore line on Lake Erie, a fine park system (1,500
acres), and wide residential streets, well shaded by maples and elms,
Cleveland possesses many aspects of unusual beauty. The city is situated
on bluffs rising from 74 to 200 ft. above the water and commands
pleasant views of Lake Erie, while the surface of the plateau upon which
the town is built is deeply cut by the Cuyahoga River, which here
pursues a meandering course through a valley half a mile wide. Other
streams, notably Dean Brook on the east border, add to the picturesque
character of the municipal setting. A chain of parks* connected by
driveways follows the valley of the Dean Brook, at the mouth of which,
on the lake front, is the beautiful Gordon Park, formerly the private
estate of William J. Gordon, but given by him to the city in 1893; from
this extends up the Dean Valley the large Rockefeller Park, given to the
city in 1896 by John D. Rockefeller and others. It adjoins Wade Park,
where are a zoological garden and a lake.
[Illustration: The First Automobile (1798)
"By means of wheels," says the Third Edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica (1798), from which this illustration was taken, "some
people have contrived carriages to go without horses. One of these
[the vehicle to the left] is moved by the footman behind it; and
the forewheels, which act as a rudder, are guided by the person
who sits in the carriage. Between the hind-wheels is placed a box,
in which is concealed the machinery that moves the carriage. A
machine of this kind will afford a salutary recreation in a garden
or park, or on any plain ground; but in a rough or deep road must
be attended with more pain than pleasure.... Another contrivance
for being carried without draught, is by means of a sailing
chariot or boat fixed on four wheels, as A/B [the figure to the
right], which is driven before the wind by the sails C/D and
guided by the rudder E. Its velocity with a strong wind is said to
be so great that it would carry eight or ten persons from
Scheveling to Putten, which is 42 English miles distant, in two
hours." The figure in the centre represents a modified sailing
vehicle designed to sail against the wind as well as with it.]
Of the several cemeteries in Cleveland, Lake View (300 acres), on an
elevated site on the east border of the city is the most noteworthy;
here are buried President Garfield (the Garfield memorial is a sandstone
tower 165 ft. high with a chapel and crypt at its base), Mark Hanna and
John Hay.
John Hay (1838-1905) was a native of Salem, Ind., and a graduate
of Brown University. He studied law in the office of Abraham
Lincoln, and, after being admitted to the bar at Springfield,
Ill., became one of Lincoln's private secretaries, serving until
the president's death. He then acted as secretary to various U.S.
Legations abroad--Paris, Vienna, Madrid--and on returning to
America became assistant secretary of State under W. M. Evarts.
President McKinley appointed him ambassador to Great Britain in
1897, and the following year Secretary of State. Hay was
prominent in many important international negotiations, such as
the treaty with Spain (1898), the "open door" in China, and the
Russo-Japanese peace settlement. He negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote
treaty concerning the Panama Canal; also settled difficulties
with Germany over the Samoan question and with Great Britain over
the Alaskan boundary. As an author, Hay is best known for his
_Pike County Ballads_, in which _Little Breeches_ first appeared,
and for the monumental life of Lincoln written by Nicolay and himself.
Other notable monuments in Cleveland are a statue of Senator Hanna by
Saint Gaudens (in University Circle), a marble statue of Commodore Perry
in commemoration of the battle of Lake Erie (in Wade Park), a soldiers'
and sailors' monument--a granite shaft rising from a memorial room to a
height of 125 ft. (in the Public Square), and a bronze statue of Moses
Cleaveland, the founder of the city (likewise in the Public Square).
This latter monument is said to stand on the very spot selected by
Cleaveland for the centre of his new settlement.
The Public Square, or Monumental Park, is in the business centre of the
city, about 1/2 M. from the lake and the same distance east of the
Cuyahoga River. From this park the principal thoroughfares radiate.
Euclid Ave., once famous for its private residences, but now the chief
retail street of the city, begins at the southeast corner of the square.
Cleveland's newest residence district is on the heights in the eastern
part of the city.
Cleveland sometimes has been called the "Sheffield of America." Its
prosperity is founded chiefly on its accessibility to oil, coal and
iron. It is the largest ore market in the world. Forty million tons of
iron ore valued at $125,000,000 are received annually in the Cleveland
district, and the ore docks where much of this ore is handled, are of
great interest. Cleveland also has extensive docking facilities,* said
to be the finest in the country, for handling its immense trade in coal
and grain. Cleveland's oil refineries, among the largest in the world,
receive enormous quantities of crude oil by pipe line, rail and water.
The city has 2,500 manufacturing plants with 125,000 workers, producing
annually goods worth about $375,000,000, of which $100,000,000
represents the products of its foundries and machine shops. Cleveland is
the first city in America in the making of wire products and automobile
parts, second in the manufacture of clothing and sewing machines and one
of the leading cities in the production of complete automobiles.
Shipbuilding (there are five large shipyards* here) is likewise an
important industry, and Cleveland controls the larger share of the
tonnage on the Great Lakes.
[Illustration: "Slab Hall," Oberlin College (1832)
Oberlin College was founded in 1832 "to give equal advantages to
whites and blacks, and to give education to women as well as to
men." Other objects were "to establish universal liberty by the
abolition of every form of sin" and "to avoid the debasing
association of the heathen classics and make the Bible a text
book in all departments of education." The traditions of Oberlin
are strongly religious, and from Charles Grandison Finney,
revivalist and president of the college from 1851 to 1866, sprang
what is called the "Oberlin Theology," a compound of free-will
and Calvinism. Before the Civil War the village was a station on
the "underground railway," and the influence of the college made
it a centre of extreme abolitionist sentiment.]
673 M. ELYRIA, Pop. 20,474. (Train 3 passes 12:52a; No. 41, 5:27a; No.
25, 4:07a; No. 19, 9:12a. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 6:22p; No. 26, 7:57p;
No. 16, 10:34p; No. 22, 2:04a.)
Elyria was founded about 1819 by Herman Ely in whose honour it was
named. Ely came from West Springfield, Mass., built a cabin on the site
of the present town, and later erected the first frame house in the
township. The city lies at the junction of the two forks of the Black
River, each of which falls about 50 feet here, furnishing considerable
water-power. There are sandstone quarries about the town. The chief
manufactures of the city are automobile supplies, telephones, electric
apparatus, flour, feed, canned goods, machine parts and iron pipe; the
annual output is valued at about $10,000,000. Eight miles to the
southwest is Oberlin (Pop. 5,000), the seat of Oberlin College.
704 M. SANDUSKY, Pop. 22,897. (Train 3 passes 1:35a; No. 41, 6:12a; No.
25, 4:44a; No. 19, 9:55a. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 5:38p; No. 26, 7:13p;
No. 16, 9:45p; No. 22, 1:16a.)
English traders visited Sandusky Bay, upon which the city of Sandusky is
situated, as early as 1748, and by 1763 a fort had been erected for
protection against the French and Indians. On May 16th of that year,
during the Pontiac rising, the Wyandot Indians burned the fort. A
permanent settlement was established in 1817.
At the entrance to Sandusky Bay is Cedar Point, with a beach for
bathing. This is an attractive summer resort. Outside Sandusky Bay are a
number of islands, most of which belong to Ohio, but the largest, Point
Pelee, is British. At the mouth of the harbour is Johnson's Island,
where many Confederate prisoners were confined during the Civil War.
There is a soldiers' and sailors' home here with accommodations for
1,600 persons. A few miles farther north are several fishing resorts,
among them Lakeside and Put-in-Bay (South Bass Island), where the
government maintains a fish hatchery. Out of this bay Oliver Hazard
Perry and his fleet sailed on the morning of Sept. 10, 1813, for the
battle of Lake Erie.
Having worked up in the U.S. Navy from midshipman to captain
during which time he saw service against the Barbary pirates,
Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry (1785-1819) was at the beginning of the
War of 1812 placed in command of a flotilla at Newport, but soon
transferred to the lakes. There, with the help of a strong
detachment of officers and men from the Atlantic coast, he
equipped a squadron of a brig, six schooners, and a sloop. In
July 1813 he concentrated the Lake Erie fleet at Presque Isle
(now Erie). In Aug. he took his squadron to Put-in-Bay, in South
Bass Island.
On Sept. 10, Perry met the British squadron, under Capt. Barclay
off Amherstburg, Ont., in the Battle of Lake Erie. Capt. Barclay,
after a hot engagement in which Perry's flagship, the "Lawrence,"
was so severely shattered that he had to leave her, was
completely defeated. "The important fact," says Theodore
Roosevelt "was that though we had nine guns less [than the enemy]
yet at a broadside, they threw half as much metal again as our
antagonist. With such odds in our favor, it would have been a
disgrace to have been beaten. The chief merit of the American
Commander and his followers were indomitable courage and
determination not to be beaten. This is no slight merit; but it
may well be doubted if it would have insured victory had
Barclay's force been as strong as Perry's.... It must always be
remembered that when Perry fought this battle he was but 27 years
old; and the commanders of his other vessels were younger still."
Another distinction which Perry won on this occasion is that he
enriched our diction when in writing to Gen. Harrison to announce
his victory, he said, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours."
Perry commanded the "Java" in the Mediterranean expedition of
1815-16 and died of yellow fever at Trinidad in 1819.
Sandusky had a spacious landlocked harbour, much improved by government
works and its trade in coal, lumber, stone, cement, fish, ice, fruit and
grape juice is extensive. Its manufactures include tools, iron and steel
products, chemicals, paper, agricultural implements, lumber products,
gasoline engines, dynamos, glass and cement, with a total value annually
of some $20,000,000.
[Illustration: An American Cartoon (1813)
Queen Charlotte is represented as saying, "Johnny, won't you take
some more Perry?" while "Johnny Bull" replies: "Oh! Perry!!! Curse
that Perry! One disaster after another. I have not half recovered
of the Bloody Nose I got at the Boxing Match." In a ballad of the
day the verse occurs:
"On Erie's wave, while Barclay brave,
With Charlotte making merry,
He chanced to take the belly-ache,
We drenched him so with Perry."
"Perry" was a kind of indigestible drink made from pear-juice. The
"boxing-match" refers to the capture of the "Boxer" by the
American schooner "Enterprise."]
757 M. TOLEDO, Pop. 243,109. (Train 3 passes 2:45a; No. 41, 7:25a; No.
25, 5:45a; No. 19, 11:05a. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 3:35p; No. 26, 5:15p;
No. 16, 7:30p; No. 22, 11:08p.)[2]
[2. Note that westbound trains here change to Central time; while
eastbound trains change to Eastern time at next station (Sandusky).]
Toledo was built on the site of Ft. Industry, erected in 1800. It lies
within an immense tract of land, constituting several reservations
bought by the U.S. government from several Indian tribes in 1795. Upon
that part of the tract farthest upstream the town of Port Lawrence was
laid out in 1807. In 1832 a rival company laid out the town of Vistula
immediately below and a year later the two united and were named Toledo.
This district was the storm-centre for the more or less ridiculous
episodes of the "Toledo War" in 1835, a dispute over the boundary line
between Ohio and Michigan. This boundary, named the "Harris Line" (1817)
after its surveyor, left in dispute a strip of land from 5 to 8 M. wide,
a rich agricultural region within which lay Toledo. Gov. Lucas of Ohio,
by authority of the State Legislature (1835), sent three commissioners
out to re-mark the Harris line so as to include the bone of contention.
When Gov. Mason, appointed by President Jackson as administrator of the
territory of Michigan heard about this, he dispatched a division of
militia to occupy Toledo.
Gov. Mason over-ran all the watermelon patches, stole the
chickens, burst in the front door of a certain Maj. Stickney's
house, and proudly carried him off as a prisoner of war, after
demolishing his ice house.
Lucas responded by sending out the Ohio militia who occupied a post at
Perrysburg, 10 M. to the south. No fighting took place in this most
genteel of wars, although there were several arrests and much confusion.
A Dr. Russ, who was with Mason's forces on their march to Toledo
gives a description of the soldiers' jumpy nerves. Various jokers
had circulated dark stories of the number of sharp-shooting
Buckeyes waiting for them at Toledo, which so alarmed this
amateur legion that nearly one half of those who had marched
boldly from Monroe availed themselves of the road-side bushes to
withdraw from such a dangerous enterprise.
President Jackson put an end to the dispute by requesting Michigan to
stop interfering with the re-marking of the boundary line, but slight
outbreaks continued until he presently removed Gov. Mason from
office, and until Congress in 1836 decided in favor of Ohio.
The city administration became famous for its efficient honesty after
1897, when Samuel Milton Jones (1846-1904) a manufacturer of oil
machinery, was elected mayor by the Republican party. The Independent
movement which he began was carried on by Brand Whitlock.
Mayor Jones was re-elected on the non-partisan ticket in 1(899?),
1901 and 1903, and introduced business methods into the city
government. His integrity in business and politics gained him the
nickname "Golden Rule Jones."
Brand Whitlock was born in Urbana, Ohio, in 1869. He began his
career as a journalist, but decided to practice law instead.
After four years of study in Springfield, Ohio, he was admitted
(to?) the bar in 1897, when he removed to Toledo. In 1905 he was
elected mayor of that city as an Independent, running against
four other candidates, and was re-elected in 1907-1909 and 1911
under similar conditions. President Wilson in 1913 sent him as
minister to Belgium where he made a distinguished record during
the War. In 1919 he was appointed ambassador to that country. His
_Memoires of Belgium under the German Occupation_, published in
1918, gives an excellent description of "frightfulness" in actual
operation.
The park system includes about 1,000 acres, connected by a boulevard 18
M. long. Toledo University (2,100 students), which include Toledo
Medical College, was founded in 1880.
The advantages of Toledo as a lake port have always been recognized, and
its growth has been rapid. It is situated about 4 M. from Lake Erie, and
is connected with it by a channel 400 ft. wide and 21 ft.
deep--sufficient to admit the largest vessels from the lake to the 25 M.
of docks. Toledo is a shipping point for the iron and copper ores and
lumber of the Lake Superior and Michigan regions, and for petroleum,
coal, fruit, grain and clover seed. There are factories for motor-cars,
plate and cut-glass, tobacco, spices, and beverages, also lumber and
planing-mills, flour and grist mills, etc., with products of an annual
value of $200,000,000 or more. At Butler (367 M.) we enter Indiana.
880 M. GOSHEN, Pop. 9,525. (Train 3 passes 4:4(9?); No. 41, 9:45a; No.
25, 2:07a; No. 19, 12:52p. Eastbound; No. 6 passes 1:06p; No. 26, 2:59p;
No. 16, 4:28p; No. 22, 8:32p.)
Situated on the Elkhart River, Goshen was first settled about 1828 by
pioneers from New England. It is the seat of Goshen College, the only
Mennonite institution of higher education in the U.S. The college was
founded as Elkhart Institute in Elkhart in 1895, and was removed to
Goshen in 1903.
The Mennonites are a religious body who nominally follow the
teaching of Menno Simons (born in Friesland, a province of
Holland, 1492; died 1559), a religious leader, who insisted that
true Christianity can recognize no authority outside of the Bible
and an enlightened conscience. There are Mennonite colonies in
Holland, France, Russia and Germany, as well as in the U.S. The
American Mennonites have been largely emigrants from Holland and
Prussia. The principal American colony is at Germantown, Pa.
(first settled 1683).
There is a Carnegie library, a city hospital and a fine high school
building in the town. Goshen is an important agricultural and lumber
market. Its manufactures include flour, lumber goods, ladders, iron,
wagons, steel tanks, underwear, machinery, furniture and farm
implements.
900 M. ELKHART, Pop. 24,277. (Train 3 passes 5:00a; No. 41, 10:05a; No.
25, 7:21a; No. 19, 1:10p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes at 12:50p; No. 26,
2:45p; No. 16, 4:10p; No. 22, 8:15p.)
Elkhart, originally "Elkheart" (the translation of an Indian word), is
so named by the Indians from the shape of an island, near the centre of
the city, formed by the junction of the two rivers, the St. Joe and the
Elkhart, which make many turns and windings here. There are several
parks, in one of which, McNaughton Park, a Chautauqua assembly is held
annually.
[Illustration: La Salle (1643-1687)
Ren['e] Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was born at Rouen,
France, and began his explorations from Montreal in 1669.
Discovering the Ohio River, he travelled down possibly as far as
(its?) junction with the Mississippi and then returned. The winter
of 1679 La Salle passed at a post above Niagra Falls, where he
built his famous (ship?), the "Griffin," in which he sailed the
Great Lakes to Lake Michigan, (and?) which he sent back laden with
(furs?) in the hope of satisfying the loans of his creditors,
while he himself proceeded westward. In 1682, (after?) many
adventures, he floated down (to?) the mouth of the Mississippi,
where he erected a monument and cross, took possession of the
region in the name of Louis XIV and named it Louisiana. When he
returned there two years (later?) with four vessels he mistook the
waters of Matagorda Bay, in the present state of Texas, for the
mouth of a branch of the Mississippi and landed there. Fruitlessly
wandering through the wilderness in search of the Mississippi
River, the Illinois country and Canada, he was killed by his
followers in March, 1687.]
Elkhart is a city of factories. Band instruments, furniture, telephone
supplies, drugs, carriages, and many other products are included among
its manufactures, which have an annual value of more than $15,000,000.
Two Mennonite papers are published here.
915 M. SOUTH BEND, Pop. 70,983. (Train 3 passes 5:30a; No. 41, 10:38a;
No. 25, 7:45a; No. 19, 1:43p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 12:20p; No. 26,
2:22p; No. 16, 3:32p; No. 22, 7:45p.)
South Bend is situated on the St. Joseph River. Just north of the city
is the portage between the St. Joseph and the Kankakee Rivers, by means
of which P[`e]re Marquette in 1675 and La Salle in 1679 made their way into
what is now the state of Illinois.
This portage was part of the long land and water highway by which
the mound-builders in pre-historic times conveyed copper from the
Lake Superior to points as distant as Mexico and South America.
As there is no place in the U.S. but the south shore of Lake
Superior where native copper can be mined, its presence in the
mounds, at remote points is an infallible guide in tracing the
commercial intercourse of the Mound-builders. Copper boulders are
also found on the shore, and even as far south as Indiana and
Illinois. That the whole extent of the copper-bearing region was
mined in remote times by a race of whom the Indians preserve no
tradition there is abundant evidence, such as numerous
excavations in the solid rock, heaps of rubble and dirt along the
courses of the veins, copper utensils such as knives, chisels,
spears, arrowheads, stone hammers creased for the attachment of
withes, wooden bowls for boiling water from the mines, wooden
shovels, ladders, and levers for raising and supporting masses of
copper. The high antiquity of this mining is inferred from these
facts: that the trenches and pits were filled level with the
surrounding surface so that their existence was not suspected;
that on the piles of rubbish were found growing trees of great
age, such as hemlock trees having annual rings showing that they
began before the coming of Columbus. Copper wrought into utensils
is found in the mounds all the way from Wisconsin to the Gulf
Coast, and the supply is too abundant to authorize the
supposition that it was derived from boulder drift. So expert
were these miners that on the site of the Minnesota mine they
lifted a copper mass weighing 6 tons, supporting on a frame of
wood 5 ft. high.
[Illustration: Jacques Marquette
Jacques Marquette was born at Laon, France, and as a Jesuit priest
went to Canada in 1666, where he was chosen to explore the
Mississippi River with Joliet, a young Canadian explorer, in 1673,
the French having begun to gain knowledge of the prairies from the
Indians. Following a route through Green Bay and up the Fox River
to a point where they made a portage to the Wisconsin, Marquette
and Joliet finally reached the Mississippi. On their return to
Michigan, Marquette fell ill, and his attempt in the following
year to found a mission among the Indians of the Illinois River
proved too much for his broken strength. On the way home he died
beside a little stream which enters Marquette Bay on Lake
Michigan.]
The earliest white settler was Pierre Navarre, one of the fraternity of
the _coureurs de bois_--a wild, rascally, fearless crew of half-breeds
and renegade whites, who were the first to invade this famous hunting
country. The succession of sheltered prairies, rounded sand-hills, and
reedy marches cut by sluggish streams widening into lakes, made a good
haunt for all game, especially beaver. Now the water is mostly drained
away and the land reclaimed, but at one time much of the region could be
passed over in canoes.
Pierre Navarre (1785-1874) was the son of a French army officer.
Besides Canadian French, he could speak the Pottowattomie Indian
dialect, and had some knowledge of woodcraft and nature signs. In
his calling of fur trader he made friends with the Miamis and
their chief, Little Turtle, and when the War of 1812 broke out,
offered the services of the tribe to Gen. Hull, as well as his
own. The offers were declined, so the flouted Miamis transferred
their allegiance to the British under Gen. Proctor. So good a
scout was Navarre that a reward of $1,000 for his head or scalp
was promised by Proctor. "He used to say," writes an old
chronicler who knew him, "that the worst night he ever spent was
as bearer of a despatch from Gen. Harrison, then at Ft. Meigs, to
Ft. Stephenson (now Fremont). Amid a thunderstorm of great fury
and fall of water, he made the trip of thirty miles through the
unbroken wilderness and the morning following delivered to Gen.
Harrison a reply." He died in his 89th year at East Toledo.
The University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, with 1,200 students, is the
largest Catholic school for boys and young men in the country, and the
American headquarters of the worldwide Order of the Holy Cross. Notre
Dame was founded in 1842 by Father Sorin, a Frenchman, who accomplished
his object under great difficulties.
When Father Sorin arrived in Indiana in 1841, leaving behind a
comfortable life in France for missionary work among the Indians,
he found on the present site of Notre Dame only waste land
covered with snow, and only one building, a tumble down log hut.
With $5 to begin work of erecting a school, he started in
courageously, and spent five days repairing the hut and fitting
it up so that one half served as a chapel and the other as a
dwelling for himself and 6 lay-brothers. In 1844 his little
college was chartered as a university by the legislature of
Indiana. Father Sorin was elected superior-general of the Order
of the Holy Cross for life. Besides Notre Dame, he founded many
other schools and colleges in the United States and Canada. He
died at South Bend in 1893. His co-worker, Father Badin, was the
first priest consecrated in the United States.
The mural frescoes of the main university building are by Luigi Gregori,
who was sent from the Vatican for this purpose, and who spent twenty
years on this work and on the adjacent Church of the Sacred Heart. The
latter is famous for its decoration, especially the beautiful altar. St.
Mary's, a large girls' school conducted by the Sisters of the Holy
Cross, has also fine buildings of more modern type than Notre Dame.
Schuyler Colfax at one time vice-president of the U.S. and for years an
intimate and trusted friend of Lincoln's, lived here in his youth, as
did the late James Whitcomb Riley. The soldier who, during the Great
War, fired the first gun of the American army in France against the
Germans was Alex Arch, a native of this city.
Though born in N.Y., Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) passed his early
years first in New Carlisle, Ind., then in South Bend, where his
step-father was county auditor. After doing some journalistic
work, he began his public career by making campaign speeches for
Henry Clay in 1844. In 1852 he joined the newly formed Republican
party, and served in Congress from 1854 to 1869. His name was
widely mentioned for the office of postmaster-general in
Lincoln's cabinet, but the president selected another man on the
ground that Colfax "was a young man, running a brilliant career,
and sure of a bright future in any event." In 1863 Colfax was
elected Speaker of the House, and in 1868 vice-president. Four
years later Colfax was implicated in a corruption charge, which
though found groundless by the Senate Judiciary Committee, cast a
shadow over the latter part of his life.
James Whitcomb Riley was born in 1853 in Greenfield, Ind. He
spent several years as a strolling sign-painter, actor, and
musician, during which time he revised plays and composed songs,
and grew closely in touch with the life of the Indiana farmer.
About 1873 he first contributed verses, especially in the Hoosier
dialect, to the papers, and before long had attained a recognized
position as poet-laureate of the Western country folk. His
materials are the incidents and aspects of village life,
especially of the Indiana villages. These he interprets in a
manner as acceptable to the na[:i]ve as to the sophisticated, which
is saying a good deal for this type of verse. Some of his best
known books are _The Rubaiyat of Doc Sifers_, _Home Folks_, _A
Defective Santa Claus_, _The Old Swimmin' Hole_, _An Old
Sweetheart of Mine_, and _Out to Old Aunt Mary's_.
Among the important manufactories of South Bend are plows,
sewing-machines, underwear, and motor-cars. The annual value of the
combined output is around $60,000,000.
942 M. LA PORTE, Pop. 15,158. (Train 3 passes 6:06a; No. 41, 11:22a; No.
25, 8:17a; No. 19, 2:22p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 11:46a; No. 26, 1:53p;
No. 16, 2:57p; No. 22, 7:07p.)
The name La Porte, which in French means "door" or "gate," took its
origin from a natural opening through the timber that here interrupted
the wide stretch of prairie. The main street of the town is built on an
old Indian trail between Detroit and points in Illinois. La Porte was
first settled in 1830. It is situated in the heart of a region of
beautiful lakes--Clear, Pine, Stone and others--which have given it a
wide reputation as a summer resort. The lakes furnish a large supply of
natural ice which is shipped to Chicago. The soil about La Porte
consists of sandy "timber" loam and vegetable mold, especially adapted
to growing potatoes, wheat and corn. Farm and orchard products were
early sources of the town's prosperity. There are now numerous
manufactures--woolen goods, agricultural engines and implements, lumber
and furniture, foundry products, musical instruments, radiators, pianos,
blankets, bicycles and flour.
975 M. GARY, Pop. 55,378. (Train 3 passes 6:47a; No. 41, 12:06p; No. 25,
8:55a; No. 19, 3:08p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 11:06a; No. 26, 1:17p; No.
16, 2:12p; No. 22, 6:23p.)
The city of Gary was built to order. Fifteen years ago the site of the
present town was nothing but a waste of sand-dunes and swamps
intersected from east to west by the Grand Calumet and Little Calumet
Rivers. In 1906 the United States Steel Corporation broke ground here
for a series of enormous foundries and factories, first laying sewers,
water mains, gas pipes and conduits for electric wires, as well as
providing other improvements necessary for life of the city. The Steel
Corporation had chosen this site partly because of its direct connection
by water with the Lake Superior ore region, partly because of its
proximity to Chicago, and partly because it was accessible to Virginia
coal and Michigan limestone. The town was named Gary in honour of Elbert
H. Gary (b. 1846), chairman of the Board of Directors of the Steel
Corporation, and in succeeding years there came an influx of inhabitants
which has made Gary the largest city in Northern Indiana. In 1906 the
city was non-existent; in 1910 it had a population of 16,802; in 1916,
40,000; and the Federal census of 1920 showed that Gary now has more
than 55,000 inhabitants.
Gary lies 30 ft. above Lake Michigan on a deep layer of sand, once the
bed of the lake, which in prehistoric time extended several miles
farther inland. The city has a splendid harbour which has been extended
by the use of the two rivers--the Grand and the Little Calumet--both of
which have been dredged and enlarged. The heart of the town is at the
intersection of Broadway and Fifth Ave., which are lined with handsome
buildings, and it is said that within radius of 10 M. of this point,
there is a population of 125,000 people, most of whom are engaged in the
industries of the Calumet region surrounding Gary.
The early growth of the town was so rapid that facilities for taking
care of the new population were inadequate. The congestion was extreme,
and real estate speculators did thriving business. Today it is said that
Gary has constructed public utilities and other improvements adequate
for a city of a quarter of a million people, and there is little doubt
that the population will reach that figure before many years have
passed. The city has fine public schools (the Gary system has become
famous throughout the United States), a Y.M.C.A. (costing $250,000), and
an excellent library. The City Hall and the Union station are likewise
notable for the scale on which they are built.
Although Gary was built to order by the Steel Corporation, its
officials did not undertake to control or direct the civic
affairs of the town. Thus, the development of the Gary system of
education was a natural, rather than an artificial one. There was
every opportunity for an altogether new departure, in view of the
inadequacy of school facilities for the fast growing population.
The new system was introduced into the Gary schools by William
Wirt, who had already made some experiments in this direction
before 1907 (when he was called to Gary) at Bluffton, Ind., where
he had been in charge of the public schools. Some of the
fundamental principles of Mr. Wirt's plan are that "students
learn best by doing" and that "all knowledge can be applied."
Latin, for example, is not studied for mental discipline, but for
actual use. The system also involves keeping the school buildings
in use for entertainment or instruction throughout the entire day
and evening, and numerous courses are provided for adults. It has
been said that in Gary "every third person goes to school." The
overcrowded condition in the N.Y.C. Schools led to an invitation
to Mr. Wirt to introduce the Gary plan into several school
districts in the boroughs of Bronx and Brooklyn in 1914-15. The
experiment aroused bitter opposition on the part of those who
suspected it was a sort of "conspiracy" to educate the poorer
children for mechanical rather than clerical occupations in the
interest of "capitalistic industry," and a year or two later N.Y.
returned to the old methods of education.
The plant of the United States Steel Corporation, located between the
Grand Calumet River and the Lake, have the most complete system of
steel mills west of Pittsburgh. Within the first ten years after the
founding of Gary the Steel Corporation had spent $85,000,000 in building
furnaces, ovens, various foundries and shops, pumping stations, electric
power plants, benzol plants, Portland cement works, and ore docks. Since
that time the Steel Corporation's investment here has practically been
doubled, and a number of subsidiary companies have built up great
industries in Gary. The Universal Portland Cement here, for example, is
said to be the largest plant of its kind in the world (daily capacity
30,000 barrels).
The United States Steel Corporation, organized in 1901 with a
capitalization of about $1,400,000, was an amalgamation of ten
independent companies, of which the Carnegie Steel Co. and the
Federal Steel Co. (of which Elbert H. Gary was president) were
perhaps the most important. The consolidation was effected under
the auspices of the late J. Pierpont Morgan, who negotiated the
purchase of Andrew Carnegie's properties for $303,450,000 in 5
per cent steel corporation bonds and $188,556,160 in common and
preferred stock. "The Value of the Carnegie Steel Co.," says A.
Cotter in _The Authentic History of the U.S. Steel Corporation_,
"was $75,000,000, though as a going concern it was worth
$250,000,000. Its earnings in a single year had been as much as
$40,000,000." Mr. Carnegie thereupon retired from business.
On Jan. 1, 1920, the corporation had a surplus of $493,048,000,
and the book value of the tangible assets was $1,917,730,000.
There were then outstanding $568,728,000 in bonds and
$868,583,000 in common and preferred stock. In 1919 strikes and
other causes reduced the production of finished steel to about 75
per cent of capacity, and at the beginning of 1920 the
corporation had unfilled orders amounting to more than 8,000,000
tons. The gross business of the corporation amounted to
$1,448,557,835 in 1919 as against $1,744,312,163 the year before.
The corporation's income for 1919, less operating expenses and
taxes, was in the neighborhood of $150,000,000.
Statistics of production for 1918 and 1919 are given below:
Production in Tons
1919 1918
Iron ore mined 25,423,000 28,332,000
Coal 28,893,000 31,748,000
Pig iron 13,481,738 15,700,561
Steel ingots 17,200,000 19,583,000
Finished steel 11,997,000 13,849,483
Cement 9,112,000 7,287,000
No. of employees 252,106 268,710
Total wages $479,548,040 $452,663,524
The average wage per day (excluding general administration and
selling force) was $6.12 in 1919 and $5.33 the year before. In
1919 the corporation spent $1,131,446 for safety work and the
like, and (1?)5 hospitals, with a staff of 162 physicians and
surgeons, were maintained.
The various works controlled by the Steel Corporation include the
Carnegie Steel Co, the Illinois Steel Co., the Universal Portland
Cement Co., the Indiana Steel Co., the Minnesota Steel Co., the
Lorain Steel Co., the National Tube Co., the American Steel and
Wire Co., the American Sheet and Tin Plate Co., the Sharon Tin
Plate Co., the American Bridge Co., the Union Steel Co., the
Clairton Steel Co., the Clairton By-Product Co., the Canadian
Steel Corporation, the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., the
Fairfield Steel Co. and the Chickasaw Shipbuilding & Car Co.
1001 M. CHICAGO, Pop. 2,701,705. (Train 3 arrives 7:40a; No. 41, 1:00p;
No. 25, 9:45a; No. 19, 4:00p. Eastbound: No. 6 leaves 10:25a; No. 26,
12:40p; No. 16, 1:30p; No. 22, 5:30p.)
[Illustration: Chicago in 1820]
The old Chicago portage was used by the Indians in travelling by canoe
from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi and then to the Gulf of Mexico,
long before any white man had visited the site of the present city on
the shore of Lake Michigan. The portage connected the Chicago River,
then flowing into Lake Michigan, with the Des Plaines River, flowing
into the Illinois River, which in turn discharges into the Mississippi
opposite a point not far from St. Louis. It is probable that the first
white men to visit the city of Chicago were Father Marquette (1637-1675)
and Louis Joliet, though La Salle may have used the portage at an
earlier date in the course of one of his journeys of exploration. It is
certain, however, that La Salle established a fort at Starved Rock, some
miles south of the present city of Chicago, in 1682; and it is in the
journal of one of La Salle's followers, Joutel, that we find the first
explanation of the name "Chicago." Joutel says that Chicago took its
name from the profusion of garlic growing in the surrounding woods.
Joutel and his party were in Chicago in March, 1688, when lack of
provision forced them to rely on whatever they could find in the
woods. It appears that Providence furnished them with a "kind of
manna" to eat with their meal. This seems to have been maple sap.
They also procured in the woods garlic and other plants. The name
Chicago may have come from the Indian word _ske-kog-ong_, wild
onion place.
After the departure of Father Marquette several other mission
settlements were attempted at Chicago, but these were all abandoned in
1700 and for almost a century Chicago ceased to be a place of residence
for white men.
The strategic value of Chicago as a centre of control for the regions of
the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River had long been recognized, but
it was not until after the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794), that the
government took active steps to establish a fort here. The treaty made
by Gen. Wayne with the Indians after that battle provided for the
cession to the American government of a tract of land at the southern
end of Lake Michigan including the site of the present city. In 1803 Ft.
Dearborn, a block-house and stockade, was constructed by the government
on the southern bank of the Chicago River near the present site of the
Michigan bridge.
In 1812, during the Indian War of Tecumseh, the Ft. Dearborn massacre
occurred. The garrison, 93 persons in all, including several women and
children, were attempting to escape to Ft. Wayne, when they were set
upon by some 500 Indians about a mile and a half south of the fort
(southern part of the present Grant Park). The Americans killed included
39 soldiers, 2 women and 12 children. The survivors were captured by the
Indians and though some were tortured and put to death, the majority
finally escaped to civilization A tablet now marks the site of the old
fort and a monument has been erected near Grant Park commemorating the
massacre. In 1816 the fort was rebuilt and a settlement rapidly grew up
around it. By 1837 the Federal government had begun the improvement of
the harbor and had started the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The lake
trade grew to enormous proportions, and the building of the railways,
especially the New York Central Lines connecting Chicago with the East,
as well as other lines connecting it with the Northwest, and the South,
gave the city an extraordinary impetus.
At the Republican convention held at Chicago in 1860, Abraham Lincoln
was nominated for the presidency and during the Civil War, Camp Douglas,
a large prison camp for Confederate prisoners, was maintained here.
The Republican national convention, which made "extension of
slavery" the essential plank of the party platform, met at
Chicago on the 26th of May, 1860. At this time William H. Seward
was the most conspicuous Republican in national politics; Salmon
P. Chase also had long been in the forefront of the political
contest against slavery. Both had won greater fame than Lincoln,
and each hoped to be nominated for president. Chase, however, had
little chance, and the contest was virtually between Seward and
Lincoln, who by many was considered more "available" because he
could, and Seward could not, carry the votes of certain doubtful
states. Lincoln's name was presented by Illinois and seconded by
Indiana. At first Seward had the stronger support, but on the
fourth ballot Lincoln was given 334 (233 being necessary) and the
nomination was then made unanimous. The convention was singularly
tumultuous and noisy: large claques were hired by both Lincoln's
and Seward's managers.
[Illustration: Block House at Chicago in 1856]
The great fire in 1871 was the most serious check to the city's
constantly increasing prosperity, but recovery from this disaster was
rapid. The solidity of this prosperity was demonstrated during the
financial panic of 1873, when Chicago banks alone among those of the
large cities of the country continued steadily to pay out current funds.
The precise cause of the great fire is not known, but it is
popularly attributed to Mrs. O'Leary's cow, which according to
tradition "kicked over the lamp" and started the flames. The fire
spread over an area of 3-1/3 Sq. M., and destroyed 1,700
buildings and property valued at $196,000,000. Almost 100,000
people were made homeless, and 250 lost their lives. The relief
contributions from the United States and abroad amounted to
nearly $5,000,000, of which about $500,000 was contributed in
England. The fire at least gave an opportunity to rebuild the old
wooden city with brick and stone.
The later history has been marked on the one hand by serious labor
troubles and on the other by the remarkable achievement of the World's
Columbian Exposition (1893). The labor outbreaks included several
strikes in the packing industry, the Haymarket Riot in 1886, and the
Pullman Strike in 1894.
The Haymarket Riot grew out of a strike in the McCormick
harvester works. Hostility against the employers had been
fomented by a group of so-called International Anarchists and the
struggle culminated at the Anarchist meeting at the Haymarket
Square. When the authorities said that the speeches were too
revolutionary to be allowed to continue and the police undertook
to disperse the meeting, a bomb was thrown and seven policemen
were killed. Seven anarchists were ultimately convicted as being
conspirators and accomplices and were condemned to death. Four
were hanged, one committed suicide, two had their death sentences
commuted to life imprisonment, and eight anarchists were
sentenced to imprisonment for 15 years. In 1893 Gov. Altgeld
pardoned those still in prison.
The leader of the Pullman strike, which began in the Pullman car
works, was Eugene Debs (1855), who was the Socialist candidate
for President in the election of 1920, although he was then in
the penitentiary at Atlanta for violating the Espionage Act
during the World War. The strike spread to the railways, and
caused great disorder until President Cleveland dispatched
federal troops to Chicago.
The exposition was an artistic and educational triumph, and its
influence on the progress of the city cannot be overestimated The
exposition gave Chicago an artistic conscience one of the direct results
of which was the organization of the City Plan Commission, a body which
is at work reshaping the city in the interests of greater beauty and
utility.
The exposition commemorated the 400th anniversary of the
discovery of America by Columbus. It was held in Jackson Park, on
the south side of the city, and covered an area of 686 acres. The
buildings (planned by a commission of architects of which D.H.
Burnham was the chief) formed a collection of remarkable beauty,
to which the grounds (planned by F.L. Olmsted), intersected by
lagoons and bordered by a lake, lent an appropriate setting. The
fair was opened to the public May 1, 1893, and the total number
of admissions was 27,500,000. The total cost was more than
$33,000,000.
Owing largely to its central position and to its excellent railroad
facilities, Chicago has been a favorite city for national political
conventions ever since the nomination of Lincoln Others nominated here
have been Grant (1866 and 1872), Garfield (1880), Cleveland (1884 and
1892). Harrison (1888), Roosevelt (1904), Taft (1908) and Harding
(1920); and in addition a number of candidates who were unsuccessful
including Blaine (1884), Harrison (1892), Bryan (1896), Taft (1912),
Roosevelt (1912), and Hughes (1916).
To most foreign visitors and even to many Americans the growth of
Chicago is its most impressive feature. Within a little more than 100
years Chicago has grown from a settlement of 14 houses, a frontier
military post among the Indians to a great metropolis, the second city
in America and fourth in size among the cities of the world. In 1829
what is now the business centre was fenced in as a pasture; in 1831 the
Chicago mail was deposited in a dry goods box; the tax levy of 1834 was
$48.90, and a well that constituted the city's water-system was sunk at
a cost of $95.50. In 1843 hogs were by ordinance barred from the
streets.
There are residents of Chicago still living who can remember the
early days when the first village school stood on the ground now
occupied by the Boston Store at Dearborn and Madison Sts. Some
even insist they remember when wolves were trapped on the site of
the present Tribune building. In the early period the streets of
the little town were thick with mire in the rainy season, and it
is said that signs were placed at appropriate points with
inscriptions such as "No Bottom Here," "Stage Dropped Here," etc.
The first improvement of note in Chicago was an inclined plank
road in Lake St., arranged with a gutter in the center for
drainage. It was the only safe route over which stage coaches
from the west could enter the town.
In 1830 with a population of less than 100, in 1840 with 4,479, the
increase by percentages in succeeding decades was as follows: 507, 265,
174, 68, 119, 54, 29, and (1910 to 1920) 23. Approximately 75 per cent
of Chicago's population is of foreign birth or parentage. This foreign
population is made up principally of Germans, about 50 per cent, Irish
12, Austrian 13, Russian 10, Swedish 6, Italian 4, Canadian, including
French Canadians, 4, and English 4.
It has been said that Chicago is "the second largest Bohemian city in
the world, the third Swedish, the fourth Norwegian, the fifth Polish and
the fifth German (New York being the fourth)." This ought not to be
construed, however, as a reflection on the fundamental Americanism of
Chicago's citizens.
The growth in area has kept pace with the growth in population. As
originally plotted in 1830, the town had an area of a little less than
half a square mile; today it covers an area of practically 200 Sq.M. Its
greatest length (north and south) is 26 M., and the greatest width (east
and west) is 9 M.
The Chicago River with its three, branches divides the city into three
sections--the North, South and West sides. Technically the downtown or
"loop" district (so-called because of the elevated railway which
encircles the central business section) belongs to the south side,
though usually it is classified separately.
The Chicago River formerly flowed into Lake Michigan. It was then
an exceedingly dirty stream and a menace to health. In order to
improve the character of the river and also to give the Chicago
adequate sanitary drainage, dredging operations to reverse the
direction of flow of the river were undertaken, and canals were
constructed connecting it with the Illinois River. This great
engineering feat was begun in 1892 and completed in 1900. The
total expenditure on the drainage canals since 1892 has been more
than $100,000,000.
In no other great city is the business district so concentrated as is
the case in Chicago. Within an area of a little more than 1 Sq. M. are
located the principal office buildings, department stores, shops, hotels
and theatres. Not far from the centre of this district is the new City
Hall and County Building, an 11-story structure costing $5,000,000.
Chicago is generally credited with being the original home of the steel
frame sky-scraper, though there are now many higher buildings in New
York and elsewhere. The height of buildings in Chicago is limited by
city ordinance to about 22 stories.
At La Salle St., where it is crossed by the southern arm of the elevated
"loop" is the New York Central Station, an impressive building which
stands closer to heart of Chicago's financial and business section than
any other railway station in the city.
Michigan Ave., just to the east of the business centre, possesses a
truly noble aspect, and the visitor could not select a better place to
begin his tour of the city. Due to the monotonous regularity of the
streets and the all-pervading soft coal smoke, Chicago presents on the
whole a somewhat drab appearance, but the view from Grant Park or from
the lake front (with Michigan Ave. in the foreground) is nearly, if not
quite, as fine as anything N.Y. has to offer. In Michigan Ave. are the
Public Library (with a beautiful interior), the Art Institute (with fine
collections of pictures and one of the largest art schools in the
country), Orchestra Hall (the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra),
the "Blackstone" Hotel and a number of fine shops.
Michigan Ave., by way of Lake Shore Drive on the north, and by way of
Midway Plaisance on the south, connects with Chicago's fine park
system. The principal parks are joined by beautiful boulevards
encircling the entire city, and a delightful two hours' motor trip (45
M.) will enable the tourist to visit Lincoln Park on the north,
Humboldt, Garfield and Douglas parks on the west, and Washington and
Jackson parks on the south.
[Illustration: Chicago Fire (1871): Randolph Street Bridge]
For reference a general summary of Chicago's "points of interest"
exclusive of those already mentioned is here given.