The Story of Streator. Being an Account of the Growth of Its
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Q.977 W67s L 1 G. RA RY . OF THL • U N I VER.5 ITY or 1 LLl NOI5 mvi wnmi-si^ Mm this book on or before the 5t Date stamped below. A t is made on all overd*' 51 ty ( THE STORY OF STREATOR ^r>F.INr. AN ACCOUNT OF THE GROWTH OF ITS IN- STITUTIONS, CIVIC. SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL. WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ITS MANUFACTURING AND BUSINESS INTERESTS: TOGETHER WITH AN OUTLINE OF ITS EARLY HISTORY AND LIFE SKETCHES OF SOME OF ITS LEADING CITIZENS. EDITED BY PUBLISHED BY E. WILLIAMS M. MEEHAN AND . THE INDEPENDENT-TIMES STREATOR. ILL. 1912 FLASHLIGHTS OF STREATOR TREATOR was platted in 1868; organized as a village in 1870; organ- ized as a city in 1882. In 1870 it had a population of 1486; in 1880 it numbered 5.157; in 1912 it claims 18,000 in city and environs. It was named after Dr. W. L. Streator, president of the Vermillion Coal Company, which opened the first shipping coal mines in 1866. It is situated 93 miles southwest of Chicago, on the Vermillion River, at the southern extremity of La Salle County where it joins Livingston; in the heart of the famous corn belt of North America, and in one of the healthiest and most pro- ductive regions. It is surrounded by the richest farms on the continent, whose value runs from $200 to $300 per acre, and whose owners and cultivators are wealthy, progres- sive and intelligent. It is reached by gravel roads from every direction, and these will soon be su- perseded by brick to accommodate the automobiles now owned by nearly every rich farmer. It stands on two producing seams of coal, and 40 feet of workable shale, than which there is none better in America for the making of vitrified brick. It reaches the markets through seven lines of railroad, which radiate in twelve different directions, and which reach thirty-one different states and terri- tories. Their combined mileage is 45,000 miles. 0- Its freight rates are the same or better than Chicago; its car service is prompt, speedy and sure; there are plenty of switch engines and crews and switch- ing charges are absorbed. It has fourteen 'coal mines operating in two seams of coal. It has 25,000 acres of unmined third vein coal, pronounced by the C. B. & Q. fuel inspector the best engine coal in Northern Illinois. It has four shale and clay working factories making brick, tile and sewer pipe and employing 600 men. It has thousands of acres of undeveloped shale, without a superior in America. o-=— Its bottle factory runs 24 hours a day and makes 6,480,000 bottles per week, being 45,000 per hour, or 740 per minute. It covers forty-five acres, employs 1800 men, and consumes 400 tons of coal per day. It has 30 passenger and 40 freight trains daily. -fl- it handles an average of 8,000,000 pounds of freight daily. o It received and shipped in 1911 freight amounting to 2,470,000,000 pounds, 110,000,000 pounds being in less than carload lots. It took 39,500 30-ton cars to handle this freight, which, if made up in trains of 25 cars each, would extend over 300 miles of trackage. the vast It is an outer belt for Chicago, and the above figures do not include the amounts of freight transferred or that passed through city. — fl- most of it in its Santa Fe pay roll alone amounts to $10,000 per month, yard and transfer service. road exclusive of those It shipped 375 automobiles in 1912 over one alone, sent by other roads. o It is only two hours by express from Chicago. of its size It has 30 miles of vitrified brick street paving, surpassing any city in the country. It has 16 miles of sewers. of the most build- It built $250,000 of new buildings last year, one prosperous ing years in its history. It has 12 miles of concrete and 75 miles of brick sidewalks. It has a fine public park of eleven acres in the heart of the city, and two smaller parks. It has a splendid wooded Chautauqua park of twenty acres with a comm.od- ious steel pavillion seating 5,000 people. It has an attractive nine-hole golf course of fifty-five acres, with a comfort- able country club house. It has a well patronized $50,000 public library, containing 16,000 volumes. It has two fine club buildings, the Elks and th? Streator Club, the latter be- ing thrown open hospitably to public uses when occasion justifies. o It has a fine Masonic Temple and an Odd Fellows' building. It has the largest retail department store for a town of its size—or of three times its size—in the world, it having 140,000 square feet of flooring under one roof. It has seven splendid school buildings of modern construction, which cost about $300,000. It has twenty churches of all denominations. o It has a well equipped modern opera house, and four other picture and vaude- ville theatres. It has three excellent hotels. It has three daily newspapers and a German weekly. It has $15,000,000 invested in industries, inclusive of the AmerJoac Bottle Company, whose parent plant and headquarters are here. It has as a climate and as good low a mortality rate as any city ir, the upion. It manufactures annually 7,000,000 milk jars, most of which .ire used in the Chicago milk trade. It produces 3,000,000 square feet of rolled plate glass per year and furnishes 80 per cent of the wire and skylight glass used in the loop district, Chicago. -o- It makes 1,500,000 pounds of Illinois Valley Creamery butter per year. —o- It has a garter factory that turns out 3,000,000 pairs of garters annually. It packed 2,500,000 cans of corn last year and will increase the amount this year. It has an abundant supply of artesian water which its factories tap on their own grounds and use for boiler and other uses. -o- It turned out last year 2.000 carloads of sewer pipe. cy It manufactures 60,000,000 vitrified shale brick annually, which lead in the building and paving brick trade of the central and northwest. coal It has a mining capacity of three-quarters of a million tons of annually. Public Service Com- Its urban transportation is cared for by street cars of the Ottawa and Peoria Com- pany, and it.s interurban travel by the Chicago, Railway of the state. pany, which connects with the McKinley interurban system Its total bank transactions for the past year were in excess of $50,000,000. different and Its four building and loan associations have 2,200 shareholders, their total receipts last year aggregated 5300,000. o its and loan Its citizens are largely home-owners, as building figures show; to home- for the $300,000 received by these societies last year was loaned largely builders—and the same is true of former years. In addition to the inducements the city and the Commercial Club may have some tracts of real es- to offer factory owners, the railroads have secured splendid and on the of increased busi- tate, admirably located for shipping purposes, promise investors. ness, are prepared to deal liberally with prospective o further infor- It has a live Commercial Club which will be glad to give any mation. J FOREV/ORD BY THE CLUB —^ HE Streator Commercial Club takes pleasure in presenting- to the A public what is believed to be the first adequate review of Streator 's re- sources, its business advantages, its history and its characteristics, that has been published. A perusal of the work will show that care has been taken to pdesent the significant features of the city in a dignified and worthy way, and that the triviality and exaggeration usually found disfiguring a work of this char- acter has been avoided. The fundamental facts about the town have been set forth with truth and clearness; many points not hitherto noticed have been brought out with a new em- phasis, and the whole has been treated in a readable and interesting manner. We commend "The Story of Streator" to any prospective investor or home maker or any citizen or friend of Streator desiring a true and interesting account of the men and the forces that have made the town. The Club will be pleased to correspond with interested parties and to give such additional and detailed information as it may possess. The variety and excellence of its illustrations, as well as the high quality of its mechanical execution, will make it a fine souvenir of Streator; equally good to keep or to send away to friends. Streator Co.nmercial Club. OFFICERS: P. J. LUCEY President. F. T. ROLPH Vice-Pres. 0. B. RYON Secretary PHILIP SAUNDERS Treasurer. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: P. J. Lucey R. F. Purcell M. B. Haskell F. T. Rolph C. H. Williams S. W. Plumb H. W. Lukins Philip Sounders 0. B. Ryon THK STOUV (»r STIlKATOIt PROGRESS OF STREATOR PITHY AND POINTED RECITAL OF CAUSES THAT MADE IT GROW. Here arc revealed tlie eauses of Streator's 7—MANUFACTURE. The motives that of Lo- progress and prosperity, past, present and fu- induced the planting here the Crawford ture. comotive ami Car Company, the \'ulc;in Detin- ning Comi)any, the Automobile and Metal 1 —('().\l.. It was l)oni imf nt' the coal heds.