The Story of Englewood, 1835-1923
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
STORF ENGLEWOOD — a I E> RAR.Y -v OF THE UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS fc*^. 977 31 5u54s CO ,z Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/storyofenglewoodOOsull THE STORY OF ENGLEWOOD 1835—1923 WRITTEN AND COMPILED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ENGLEWOOD BUSINESS MEN'S ASSOCIATION EDITED BY GERALD E. SULLIVAN AND COMMITTEE OF CHAS. S. DENEEN, E. H. HOL- TORFF, DR. J. W. WILDER, CLARENCE O. ROSEN, H. M. ENGLESTEIN, JAMES E. ARMSTRONG, J. W. BARNEY. COPYRIGHT 1924 r,288 ILLUSTRATED AND ARRANGED PRINTED By By EDWARD H. DOUGHERTY FOSTER & McDONNELL STORY OF ENGLEWOOD COMMITTEE [CLARENCE O.ROSEnIII^uZ^i^ L.A^MST ftJHl $UlPf TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page <o i Story of Englewood 9 ii Halsted and 63rd Streets 21 4[ 5 in General Notes 29 *\ IV Englewood Homes 33 V The Social Life 39 VI The Older .Merchants 43 VII Justices of the Peace and Police Magistrate!. 47 VIII Normal School 51 IX Englewood I [igh School 59 X Schools of Englewood 65 XI Elementary Schools 71 XII Professional Englewood 81 o" Men of <3 XIII The Fire Department 85 11 Parks and Boulevards ^7 1 XIV XV The Soldiers of Englewood 91 «*$ XVI Englewood Post Office 95 4 XVII Newspapers of Englewood 97 XVIII The Public Library of Englewood 101 ^ XIX The Coming of the Elevated Railroad 103 3 XX Churches of Englewood 107 ( XXI Lodges and Organizations 12 J XXII Banks of Englewood 179 XXIII Reminiscences of Old Settlers 191 4 TO CORRECT AXY ERRORS The author of "The Story of Engleivood" respectfully requests any reader zuho may dis- cover in its perusal any mistakes, errors or important omissions, to send, as soon as pos- sible, a notation of the same, also any sugges- tions that may be valuable for a second edi- tion, which zvill probably be published very soon. The author used every means in his power to secure correct data, but found a feeling of indifference among many who should have been interested , hence there may be mistakes and omissions that were not the fault of the author or the committee. Kindly mail anything you may wish to the author, or the committee, 728 IT. 65th St., Englewood, Chicago, Illinois. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Story of Englewood Committee 2 Bird's-Eye View in 1872 6 Rock Island Depot in 1878 11 Cook County Normal School 15 Englewood High School ( ( )ld ) 17 View of Halsted Street from Elevated Railroad 20 The First Business Block 21 Corner 59th and Halsted Streets 23 Modern Englewood at Night 26 Elevated Station at 63rd and 1 lalsted 35 Englewood Baptist Church in 1890 ^7 Railroad Yards in Englewood 40 Washington Park Club I louse 45 Englewood High School ( Today) 50 Hiram Kelly Library 67 Lindblom 1 Iigh School 68 St. Bernard's Hospital 82 Aero View of Englewood 96 Chicago Normal College ( Today ) 100 Englewood Baptist Church 106 Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist 106 Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer Ill I Iigh Altar, St. Bernard's Church 117 St. Martin's German Catholic Church 123 Masonic Temple and K. C. Club House 148 View West on 63rd Street from I harvard Avenue.... 162 Mew West on 63rd Street from Union Avenue 100 lit! : PREFACE Englewood-Chicago, January 1, 1924. To the Reader Now that the volume is completed, I lay down my pen, or rather lift my good index fingers from the typewriter, with a feeling of satisfaction, mingled with a certain sad- ness in bidding farewell to the members of the committee, many of whom wr ere closely associated with me in the work, and the many ''old timers" it has brought me in contact with. I have endeavored to write a more or less consecutively connected Story of Englewood rather than a prosaic history, although careful search has been made to authenticate all important matters. Personal histories are omitted for lack of space, not because they were not worthy of a page in the history of our good old town, but simply because we would have been compelled to write a library instead of a single volume. Notwithstanding our most earnest efforts, some organizations are not represented as those in authority failed to give us the facts necessary to write them. I desire especially to thank former Governor Deneen, J. W. Barney, Daniel S. Wentworth, Prof. James E. Armstrong, Judge Theodore Ehler, Harry E. Englestein, E. H. Holtorff, Dr. W. J. Wilder, Col. H. D. Fulton, Wil- liam Spinks, Mrs. J. J. Delaney, Harry O. Wilson and the writers of the reminiscences published, for their kindly assistance and cheerful encouragement at all times. Mr. R. B. Pierce, Business Manager of the Englewood Business Men's Association, was especially helpful and kindly in his assistance. If this volume will serve as a pleasant reminder to the old timers and interest the newer residents, I feel that my work has not been in vain. With the kindliest good wishes for all, and farewell, I remain, Sincerely yours, Gerald E. Sullivan. The Story of Englewood CHAPTER I IN WRITING the story of Englewood, it shall be the object of the committee appointed by the Englewood Business Men's Association to tell in a more or less methodical manner, the story of our pleasant, prosperous town, in a readable and reminiscent manner, rather than to repeat the cumbersome phraseology of a history. There may be repetitions, but we hope no inaccuracies. The first definite information regarding the original occupants of the soil is gained from the account given by La Salle of his expedition from the mouth of the St. Joseph River in Michigan by land to the Illinois River in the Winter of 1681. He traveled along the south shore of the lake in the country of the Miamis until he reached what was then the Checaugua, but later the Desplaines River. The portage he was obliged to cross in order to reach that river he called the Checaugua Portage. The neighbors of the Miamis on the west were the Mascoutins and they had undoubtedly been the possessors of the present site of Englewood for many years and were possibly a branch of the Pottawatomies. Tn Hennepin's account of La Salle's expedition to the Illinois River in 1680 we read of the establishment of a fort, called by the savages Checaugua, and by the French Fort Creveceur. Many Indians were located in this vicinity of Illinois and the most friendly hovered in the neighbor- hood of the fort. The name Checaugua went through many changes and the best genealogists say that the word Chicago in its applications signified mighty, strong, powerful. The Mascoutins, Miamis, Illinois and Sauk Indians had villages all through the territory west and south of Checau- gua and the French have left relics of their occupation in the ruined forts recently discovered in the Forest Preserves through the towns of Palos, Worth and Bloom. In 1764 the first permanent fort was built on the present site of Chicago, although all of the neighboring- country had for a period of years been traversed backward 9 10 THE STORY OF ENGLEWOOD and forward by the French missionaries and Courier de Bois. On the 3rd of August, 1795, a piece of land six 44 miles square at the mouth of the Chicago River, where a fort formerly stood," was ceded by the Indians to the United States in anticipation of its being made a military post, occupied only part of the time by a garrison. In the Summer of 1803 Captain John Whistler, U. S. A., occupied the post and built the fort. A letter recently shown us by Airs. Whistler says that there were but four cabins or trader's huts, occupied by Canadian French with their Indian wives, at that time. How the garrison of old Fort Dearborn was massacred in 1812 is an old story and the thriving village of Chicago was really the most important point in all the territory north, south and west, because of its commercial enterprise and its being the gateway of the then only means of traffic by the Great Lakes. Naturally the land in the immediate vicinity was soon settled by farmers, principally from the Eastern states, and a Mood of immigrants, beginning in 1832, marveled at the beautiful and fertile prairies to the west and the present site of Englewood was taken up as farm land. Very early in the eighteenth century the land about Chicago was taken up, even before the Indians had ceded their right to it to the United States Government, and it was possibly not until 1840 or 1842 that the land upon which Englewood now stands was entered for settlement in the Government Land Office at Chicago. There is a confusion both as to names and dates as well as the exact description of this land. One entry would show it to have been entered by a man named Bailey, while the name of Wilcox is also entered for land just west of that entered by Bailey. Inasmuch as Bailey did locate on a tract of land south and east of what is now South Chicago and a stage station was located upon it, known in the old coaching days and now as Bailey Town, the first station south of Ains- worth or South Chicago of today, the claim to the Engle- wood land may have been entered by Wilcox. Land speculators and exploiters of all kinds flocked to this rich territory and the Illinois Legislature as well as the Lmited States Congress was flooded with bills for spe- INTRODUCTORY 11 cial privileges, stage coach lines, canals and even the newly tried railroads were agitated for and, in the spring of 1852, the first railroad was built through Englewood and on to Chicago.