VIDEO
The Closing of the Busy Bee Restaurant.
INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
The Busy Bee Restaurant, 1546-50 North Damen Avenue in Chicago, Illinois (1913-1998).
One of my Dad's offices (he was an optometrist) was on the ground floor of the Tower building at North, Milwaukee, and Damen Avenues in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago.
He knew the owner of the Busy Bee Restaurant, Sophia Madej, very well. She would stop by his office and give my Dad the homemade soup of the day (the beet borscht was to die for), a few dozen different kinds of Pierogi's, and sometimes some other Polish specialties Sophia made that day as a care package for my Mom. I loved the Busy Bee because Sophia treated me just like her own family, perhaps even better.
The restaurant had numerous visits by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, both Mayor Daley's, Senator Edward Kennedy, and lots of other local big-wig political figures. Walk-in and most likely there were some big sports stars eating there. With so many recognizable people eating at the restaurant, Officers Bill Jaconetti (right) and Al Kohl (left) stopped in many times a day (their beat) to check on Sophie and the Busy Bee restaurant.
The Busy Bee has been a Near Northwest Side mainstay since 1913 when the area was predominantly Polish, and the restaurant was known as the Oak Room. No one knows for sure when the restaurant was renamed, but it was long before the Madej's bought it in 1965. The restaurant closed in June 1998.
INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
The History of the Village of Hecker, Illinois and Civil War Colonel, Friedrich Franz Karl Hecker.
The Village of Hecker had its beginnings first as the town of Freedom, with the first house built in 1849. Hecker, located at the intersection of Illinois Routes 156 and 159, is on the eastern tip of Monroe County.
In 1895, due to the discontent of the citizens of Freedom, with the muddy roads and lack of sidewalks, they decided to incorporate. Because there was already a town named Freedom in Illinois, the U.S. Post Office requested another name for the village.
Hecker, as it is known today, was named for Colonel Friedrich Franz Karl Hecker (1811 B Born: Angelbachtal, Germany and buried in Summerfield Cemetery, Summerfield, Illinois in 1881), a German lawyer, politician and revolutionary. He was one of the most popular speakers and agitators of the 1848 German Revolution (aka: the Hecker Uprising)[1].
His arrival in America saw a huge reception. He settled in Summerfield, Illinois, just outside St. Louis, Missouri. Then, in 1861 he enlisted as a Private in Franz Sigel's 3rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry.
He had assembled a regiment consisting of German and Jewish soldiers as a Union Army Colonel in the 24th and later on the 82nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville while carrying the battle flag during a charge on Confederate positions.
Hecker owned a farm near Summerfield in adjacent St Clair County. Because of Col. Hecker's personality, courteous dealings and intellect, the people of Freedom decided to name their village after him.
Hecker died in 1881 and was buried in Summerfield, Illinois.
[1] 1848 German Revolution / The Hecker Uprising - The Hecker uprising was an attempt by Baden revolutionary leaders Friedrich Hecker, Gustav von Struve, and several other radical democrats in April 1848 to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic in the Grand Duchy of Baden (The Grand Duchy of Baden was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918). The main action of the uprising consisted of an armed civilian militia under the leadership of Friedrich Hecker moving from Konstanz in the direction of Karlsruhe with the intention of joining with another armed group under the leadership of Georg Herwegh there to topple the government. The two groups were halted independently by the troops of the German Confederation before they could combine forces. The Hecker Uprising was the first large uprising of the Baden Revolution and became, along with its leader, part of the national myth.
Hecker, as it is known today, was named for Colonel Friedrich Franz Karl Hecker (1811 B Born: Angelbachtal, Germany and buried in Summerfield Cemetery, Summerfield, Illinois in 1881), a German lawyer, politician and revolutionary. He was one of the most popular speakers and agitators of the 1848 German Revolution (aka: the Hecker Uprising)[1].
His arrival in America saw a huge reception. He settled in Summerfield, Illinois, just outside St. Louis, Missouri. Then, in 1861 he enlisted as a Private in Franz Sigel's 3rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry.
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| The Hecker Farm in Summerfield, Illinois. |
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| Colonel Hecker during the American Civil War. |
Hecker died in 1881 and was buried in Summerfield, Illinois.
[1] 1848 German Revolution / The Hecker Uprising - The Hecker uprising was an attempt by Baden revolutionary leaders Friedrich Hecker, Gustav von Struve, and several other radical democrats in April 1848 to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic in the Grand Duchy of Baden (The Grand Duchy of Baden was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918). The main action of the uprising consisted of an armed civilian militia under the leadership of Friedrich Hecker moving from Konstanz in the direction of Karlsruhe with the intention of joining with another armed group under the leadership of Georg Herwegh there to topple the government. The two groups were halted independently by the troops of the German Confederation before they could combine forces. The Hecker Uprising was the first large uprising of the Baden Revolution and became, along with its leader, part of the national myth.
Saturday, October 14, 2017
French & Indian War Encampment at Fort de Chartres in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois on Oct. 14, 2017.
The Fort de Chartres French & Indian War Encampment is this weekend in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois.
It's about historically dressed Native American, soldier, militia, and camp followers re-enactors that participate in everyday camp activities and military drills in the 1750s style. It was a small gathering of perhaps 60 re-enactors.
I visited this morning and captured some excellent photographs.
I visited this morning and captured some excellent photographs.
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| A canoe used as the base for a "lean-to" tent. |
Photographs © Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Fort de Chartres (1720-1763) / Fort Cavendish (1765-1772) and the Village of Nouvelle Chartres.
Fort de Chartres is located on Illinois Route 155, four miles west of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois. The site marks the location of the last of three successive forts named "de Chartres," built by the French during their eighteenth-century colonial occupation of what is Illinois today.
Initially, the Illinois Country was under the jurisdiction of the Canadian province of Quebec, but in 1717, it was transferred as a district to the province of Louisiana. The first commandant of the Illinois Territory was Pierre Duque Boisbriant, who arrived in December of 1718 with orders to govern the country and erect in the Mississippi Valley a bastion to forestall possible aggressions of the English and Spanish as well as to protect the settlers from hostile Indians. With eagerness, he started to build the most pretentious in the chain of forts along the Mississippi River.
The First Fort
Fort Chartres was the creation of the Company of the West, or Mississippi Company, which was organized by the celebrated John Law in August 1717, immediately after the surrender by the Sieur Antoine Crozat (Crozat, marquis du Châtel, the French founder of an immense fortune, was the first proprietary owner of French Louisiana, from 1712 to 1717.) of his patent and privileges in Louisiana to the French crown. It was named Fort de Chartres, presumably in complement to the Regent of France, from his son's title, the Due de Chartres. This commercial company and its early successor, the Royal India Company, held away in the province of Louisiana, of which Illinois formed a part for fourteen years.
On February 9, 1718, three ships of the Western Company – the Dauphin, Virilante, and Neptune – arrived at Dauphin Island with officers and men to take possession of Louisiana. On one of these vessels, or on the frigate La Duchesse de Noailles, which arrived at Ship Island on March 6, came Pierre Duque de Boisbriant, a French Canadian, who had been commissioned first king's lieutenant for the province of Louisiana, and who was the bearer of a commission appointing his cousin, LeMoyne de Bienville, governor and commandant general of the region, in place of M. L'Epignoy's removal.
In the early part of October 1718, Lieutenant Boiabriant, with several officers and a considerable detachment of troops, departed by bateau (boats) from Biloxi, through lakes Pontchartrain and Maureeas and up the Mississippi to regulate affairs in the Illinois County and to establish a permanent military post for the better protection of the French inhabitants in their northern district of the province. Arriving at Kaskaskia late in December of that year, he established his temporary headquarters, which was the first military occupation of the village. This, however, was continued for only about 18 months.
Having selected a convenient site for his post, some 18 miles northwest of Kaskaskia, de Boisbriant brought a large force of mechanics and laborers to work in the forest.
This palisaded log fortification, completed in the spring of 1720, covered 1¾ square miles and was located on the Mississippi River about sixteen miles northwest of Kaskaskia. It served as the company's headquarters and the civil, military, and marine government authority of the Illinois Territory (1809-1818). Its erection was meant to pursue three economic goals set by the company: to facilitate the fur trade, to kick-start lead mining, and to develop regional agriculture.
The company decided to build the new fort between two villages, should they ever need to quickly intervene in either place: Cahokia to the north, Kaskaskia to the south. Its construction, led by Captain Pierre Dugué, sieur de Boisbriant and first lieutenant of the king, was pretty rudimentary. Its shape was rectangular with two diagonally opposed bastions. Its wooden palisade, measuring about 190 feet on each side, was surrounded by a dry moat. This fort contained only three buildings, lodging about one hundred men.
The fort stood on the alluvial bottom (sand, silt, clay, gravel, or other matter deposited by flowing water, as in a riverbed, floodplain, or delta. Alluvium is generally considered a young deposit in terms of geologic time.) about 3/4 of a mile from the Mississippi River and near to an older fort that had been erected by the adventures under Crozat. Midway between it and the bluffs on the east extend a bayou of the lake, which was supposed to add to the strategic strength of the place.
The fort was built of wood and was very large, but whether it was furnished with bastions is still being determined. It is described as a stockade fort, fortified with earth between the rows of palisades. Within the enclosure were erected the commandant's house, the barracks, the large storehouse for the company, etc., the same being constructed of hewed timbers and ship-sawed planks.
Although not a strong fortification, except against Indian attacks, it was made to answer the needs of its builders and commandants who successfully ruled here for an entire generation. Moreover, it formed an essential link in the lengthened chain of French posts stretching from eastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The idea of this long line of military and trading posts appears to have originated in the fertile brain of that explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. Poor maintenance and frequent flooding caused this fort to be abandoned.
Two chapels, one in Prairie du Rocher and the other in St. Philippe, were managed by the parish of Saint Anne, which, in turn, was alternately run by the Society of Foreign Missions, Jesuit, and Recollect missionaries. Unfortunately, the fort, constructed at a "musket's shot" distance from the Mississippi River, was regularly flooded by rising waters in the spring. Consequently, the first fort was only used for a few years before being replaced.
Village of Nouvelle Chartres (1720-1765)
Shortly after the completion of the fort, the Louisiana government founded a village outside of the fort that shared the same name, Nouvelle Chartres, in 1720. Contrary to New France's Fortress of Louisbourg (in Canada) or Fort Michilimackinac in today's State of Michigan, the inhabitants did not live within Fort de Chartres. Settlers from Canada and France, confident of protection, arrived and clustered near the fort. They wondered whether the native Indians could be trusted. While the local Metchagamia tribe near the fort proved to be anything but warlike, in 1729, the Natchez Indians, provoked by the tyranny and greed of the French commandant Chobart – incited a conspiracy against the French. Massacres were frequent.
In 1736, the garrison of Fort Chartres marched against the Chickasaw Indians, who threatened to cut communications between the Illinois Country and the city of New Orleans. The focal point of this little French community of Nouvelle Chartres was the parish church of St. Anne du Fort de Chartres. Commander Jean-Jacques Macarty's census tallied the population to 198 French, 89 black slaves, and 36 panis (native) slaves in 1752. Thus, the Village of Chartres people were classed third in importance after Cahokia and Kaskaskia. The fort itself could accommodate up to 300 soldiers.
The village of Chartres disappeared shortly after 1765, making way instead for the parish of Saint Joseph in Prairie du Rocher, which still exists today.
The Second Fort
The second fort was constructed sometime around 1725. Erected near the first fort, it was a little smaller than its predecessor but included four bastions. A small chapel and a hospital were constructed outside the palisade. Just like the first fort, it often flooded. After the West India Company failed to find gold and precious minerals, the government of New Orleans took control of the region and the fort. The decrepit state of the fort forced the garrison to move to Kaskaskia in 1747.
The Third Fort
The land exploitation never yielded precious metal deposits, but the region became an important lead source. The fertile ground is favorable to agriculture.
The Illinois Country quickly became a sort of "breadbasket to Louisiana." To protect commerce and exchanges, the colonial administration decided from then on that a more robust military presence was required in the area.
Initially, the government of New Orleans wanted to reconstruct Fort de Chartres in Kaskaskia. Founded in 1703, this community was larger than the old fort. In 1751, Governor Vaudreuil left the administrative center of Illinois, where it stood. To avoid annual floods, however, it was reconstructed about one-half mile north of the first fort under the supervision of engineer Jean-Baptiste Saucier. Construction was difficult. The lack of experienced workers and the many desertions slowed the work effort.
Furthermore, construction material was brought in from north of Prairie du Rocher, located several miles from the construction site. The cost of construction, evaluated at some $7,750,000, according to some estimates, rapidly escalated to the point where the French crown threatened to abandon the work in progress. The new governor of New Orleans, Louis Billouard de Kerlerec, assured the French minister that construction was nearly complete. In reality, the fort would only be completed in 1760.
This new fort, as would be revealed by archaeological digs, measured up to 170 feet from one bastion tip to another. According to contemporary eyewitnesses, the walls were covered by plaster, measured between 18 and 24 inches thick, and had gun loops at regular intervals. Each bastion wall contained two post-holes for cannons. All agreed that the gate was impressive and of "nice appearance." Inside the enclosure were the commander's house and that of the commissary, the storehouse, the guardhouse, and two soldier's barracks. At the heart of each bastion were the powder magazine, a bakehouse, and a prison comprised of four dungeons divided between the underground and the second floor. Philip Pittman wrote in 1764: "It is generally allowed that this is the most commodious and best-built fort in North America."
The End of the Fort
Although it was constructed out of stone, the new fort was not made to resist grand artillery fire but to withstand native sieges. Luckily, despite the apprehensions of Commander Pierre-Joseph Neyon de Villiers, Fort de Chartres was never the target of any English offensive. In theory, should Canada be lost, the head staff of the French army expected to retreat to it with a few thousand soldiers to attack Virginia and Carolina. In the end, this plan was never put into action.
After the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, officializing the French defeat at the end of the Seven Years' War, Fort de Chartres wound up in British hands. The new occupants of the fort quickly faced the same problems as their predecessors: disease, particularly malaria[1], and soil erosion. The British tried different methods to attenuate the effects of the erosion that threatened to engulf the fort. Still, maintenance costs soon exceeded the fort's worth in the eyes of British authorities. Because of the murder of the Ottawa Chief Pontiac, the British renamed Fort de Chartres – Fort Cavendish in October of 1765. The garrison thus abandoned it in 1771. After a severe flood in 1772, Fort Cavendish/Chartres was abandoned forever. One year later, the South wall and its bastions collapsed.
As for the residents of the East shore of the Mississippi, most moved onto the western shore, which was thought to be more hospitable because of the presence of a Spanish catholic government.
From Deterioration to Valorization
Once abandoned, Fort de Chartres was only occasionally occupied by errant natives. The fort quickly deteriorated, and vegetation reclaimed the land; thus, by 1804, about thirty years after being abandoned, the presence of trees measuring 7 to 12 inches in diameter was reported within the old enclosure. The repetitive scavenging of material from the fort by the inhabitants of neighboring communities contributed to the gradual disappearance of its last remains.
In 1913, the State of Illinois purchased the nearly 20 acres of land on which the ruins lay, probably giving in to the insistence of certain history amateurs and professionals, like Joseph Wallace, who, in his 1904 article, strongly suggested the preservation of this "relic." Henceforth established as a state park, work began in 1917 to restore the Powder Magazine, the only relatively intact structure in the fort and thought to be the oldest military structure in Illinois.
The partial reconstruction of the fort, undertaken through a governmental construction program, spread over many years: the storehouse was rebuilt in 1929; the gate in 1936; the guardhouse in 1940; finally, the foundations of anything that wasn't reconstructed were covered with a layer of cement to stop erosion.
The efforts invested in research and reconstruction guarantee Fort de Chartres' place in the heart of the Illinois Country's French heritage.
Initially, the Illinois Country was under the jurisdiction of the Canadian province of Quebec, but in 1717, it was transferred as a district to the province of Louisiana. The first commandant of the Illinois Territory was Pierre Duque Boisbriant, who arrived in December of 1718 with orders to govern the country and erect in the Mississippi Valley a bastion to forestall possible aggressions of the English and Spanish as well as to protect the settlers from hostile Indians. With eagerness, he started to build the most pretentious in the chain of forts along the Mississippi River.
sidebar
The word "Mississippi" comes from the Ojibwe Indian Tribe (Algonquian language family) word "Messipi" or "misi-ziibi," which means "Great River" or "Gathering of Waters." French explorers, hearing the Ojibwe word for the river, recorded it in their own language with a similar pronunciation. The Potawatomi (Algonquian language family) pronounced "Mississippi" as the French said it, "Sinnissippi," which was given the meaning "Rocky Waters."
The First Fort
Fort Chartres was the creation of the Company of the West, or Mississippi Company, which was organized by the celebrated John Law in August 1717, immediately after the surrender by the Sieur Antoine Crozat (Crozat, marquis du Châtel, the French founder of an immense fortune, was the first proprietary owner of French Louisiana, from 1712 to 1717.) of his patent and privileges in Louisiana to the French crown. It was named Fort de Chartres, presumably in complement to the Regent of France, from his son's title, the Due de Chartres. This commercial company and its early successor, the Royal India Company, held away in the province of Louisiana, of which Illinois formed a part for fourteen years.
On February 9, 1718, three ships of the Western Company – the Dauphin, Virilante, and Neptune – arrived at Dauphin Island with officers and men to take possession of Louisiana. On one of these vessels, or on the frigate La Duchesse de Noailles, which arrived at Ship Island on March 6, came Pierre Duque de Boisbriant, a French Canadian, who had been commissioned first king's lieutenant for the province of Louisiana, and who was the bearer of a commission appointing his cousin, LeMoyne de Bienville, governor and commandant general of the region, in place of M. L'Epignoy's removal.
In the early part of October 1718, Lieutenant Boiabriant, with several officers and a considerable detachment of troops, departed by bateau (boats) from Biloxi, through lakes Pontchartrain and Maureeas and up the Mississippi to regulate affairs in the Illinois County and to establish a permanent military post for the better protection of the French inhabitants in their northern district of the province. Arriving at Kaskaskia late in December of that year, he established his temporary headquarters, which was the first military occupation of the village. This, however, was continued for only about 18 months.
Having selected a convenient site for his post, some 18 miles northwest of Kaskaskia, de Boisbriant brought a large force of mechanics and laborers to work in the forest.
This palisaded log fortification, completed in the spring of 1720, covered 1¾ square miles and was located on the Mississippi River about sixteen miles northwest of Kaskaskia. It served as the company's headquarters and the civil, military, and marine government authority of the Illinois Territory (1809-1818). Its erection was meant to pursue three economic goals set by the company: to facilitate the fur trade, to kick-start lead mining, and to develop regional agriculture.
The company decided to build the new fort between two villages, should they ever need to quickly intervene in either place: Cahokia to the north, Kaskaskia to the south. Its construction, led by Captain Pierre Dugué, sieur de Boisbriant and first lieutenant of the king, was pretty rudimentary. Its shape was rectangular with two diagonally opposed bastions. Its wooden palisade, measuring about 190 feet on each side, was surrounded by a dry moat. This fort contained only three buildings, lodging about one hundred men.
The fort stood on the alluvial bottom (sand, silt, clay, gravel, or other matter deposited by flowing water, as in a riverbed, floodplain, or delta. Alluvium is generally considered a young deposit in terms of geologic time.) about 3/4 of a mile from the Mississippi River and near to an older fort that had been erected by the adventures under Crozat. Midway between it and the bluffs on the east extend a bayou of the lake, which was supposed to add to the strategic strength of the place.
The fort was built of wood and was very large, but whether it was furnished with bastions is still being determined. It is described as a stockade fort, fortified with earth between the rows of palisades. Within the enclosure were erected the commandant's house, the barracks, the large storehouse for the company, etc., the same being constructed of hewed timbers and ship-sawed planks.
Although not a strong fortification, except against Indian attacks, it was made to answer the needs of its builders and commandants who successfully ruled here for an entire generation. Moreover, it formed an essential link in the lengthened chain of French posts stretching from eastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The idea of this long line of military and trading posts appears to have originated in the fertile brain of that explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. Poor maintenance and frequent flooding caused this fort to be abandoned.
Two chapels, one in Prairie du Rocher and the other in St. Philippe, were managed by the parish of Saint Anne, which, in turn, was alternately run by the Society of Foreign Missions, Jesuit, and Recollect missionaries. Unfortunately, the fort, constructed at a "musket's shot" distance from the Mississippi River, was regularly flooded by rising waters in the spring. Consequently, the first fort was only used for a few years before being replaced.
Village of Nouvelle Chartres (1720-1765)
Shortly after the completion of the fort, the Louisiana government founded a village outside of the fort that shared the same name, Nouvelle Chartres, in 1720. Contrary to New France's Fortress of Louisbourg (in Canada) or Fort Michilimackinac in today's State of Michigan, the inhabitants did not live within Fort de Chartres. Settlers from Canada and France, confident of protection, arrived and clustered near the fort. They wondered whether the native Indians could be trusted. While the local Metchagamia tribe near the fort proved to be anything but warlike, in 1729, the Natchez Indians, provoked by the tyranny and greed of the French commandant Chobart – incited a conspiracy against the French. Massacres were frequent.
In 1736, the garrison of Fort Chartres marched against the Chickasaw Indians, who threatened to cut communications between the Illinois Country and the city of New Orleans. The focal point of this little French community of Nouvelle Chartres was the parish church of St. Anne du Fort de Chartres. Commander Jean-Jacques Macarty's census tallied the population to 198 French, 89 black slaves, and 36 panis (native) slaves in 1752. Thus, the Village of Chartres people were classed third in importance after Cahokia and Kaskaskia. The fort itself could accommodate up to 300 soldiers.
The village of Chartres disappeared shortly after 1765, making way instead for the parish of Saint Joseph in Prairie du Rocher, which still exists today.
The Second Fort
The second fort was constructed sometime around 1725. Erected near the first fort, it was a little smaller than its predecessor but included four bastions. A small chapel and a hospital were constructed outside the palisade. Just like the first fort, it often flooded. After the West India Company failed to find gold and precious minerals, the government of New Orleans took control of the region and the fort. The decrepit state of the fort forced the garrison to move to Kaskaskia in 1747.
The Third Fort
The land exploitation never yielded precious metal deposits, but the region became an important lead source. The fertile ground is favorable to agriculture.
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| Fort de Chartres' gate. Note that initially, the entrance faced the river, while that of the rebuilt fort faces away from it. |
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| The third fort, erected in 1753 |
The End of the Fort
Although it was constructed out of stone, the new fort was not made to resist grand artillery fire but to withstand native sieges. Luckily, despite the apprehensions of Commander Pierre-Joseph Neyon de Villiers, Fort de Chartres was never the target of any English offensive. In theory, should Canada be lost, the head staff of the French army expected to retreat to it with a few thousand soldiers to attack Virginia and Carolina. In the end, this plan was never put into action.
As for the residents of the East shore of the Mississippi, most moved onto the western shore, which was thought to be more hospitable because of the presence of a Spanish catholic government.
From Deterioration to Valorization
Once abandoned, Fort de Chartres was only occasionally occupied by errant natives. The fort quickly deteriorated, and vegetation reclaimed the land; thus, by 1804, about thirty years after being abandoned, the presence of trees measuring 7 to 12 inches in diameter was reported within the old enclosure. The repetitive scavenging of material from the fort by the inhabitants of neighboring communities contributed to the gradual disappearance of its last remains.
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| The ruins of Fort de Chartres / Fort Cavendish with powder magazine intact. |
The partial reconstruction of the fort, undertaken through a governmental construction program, spread over many years: the storehouse was rebuilt in 1929; the gate in 1936; the guardhouse in 1940; finally, the foundations of anything that wasn't reconstructed were covered with a layer of cement to stop erosion.
Systematic archaeological digs at Fort de Chartres were only undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s. These first digs were held following public pressure insisting that the fort be rebuilt in the most authentic way possible; thus, the North Wall was reconstructed during the 1980s on its original foundations. Essentially carried out on the site of the third fort, these digs were followed by a second archaeological search, which confirmed the location of the first Fort de Chartres.
The efforts invested in research and reconstruction guarantee Fort de Chartres' place in the heart of the Illinois Country's French heritage.
The fort site was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The fort site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Currently managed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Society, the site is open to visitors with access to its museum and a library dedicated to the fort's history.
Fort de Chartres State Historic Site
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Photographs copyright © Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
[1] Malaria was a common disease in Chicagoland and southern Illinois in pioneer days, wherever swamps, ponds, and wet bottomlands allowed mosquitoes to thrive; the illness was called ague, or bilious fever, when liver function became impaired; medical historians believe that the disease came from Europe with early explorers around 1500; early travel accounts and letters from the Midwest reports of the ague (a fever or shivering fit), such as those of Jerry Church and Roland Tinkham, the details of which are extracted from their writings:
From the Journal of Jerry Church, when he had "A Touch of the Ague" in 1830: ...and the next place we came to of any importance was the River Raisin, in Michigan. There, we met with several gentlemen from different parts of the world, speculators in land and town lots and cities, all made out on paper, and prices set at one and two hundred dollars per lot, right in the woods, and musquitoes and gallinippers thick enough to darken the sun. I recollect the first time I slept at the hotel. I told the landlord the next morning I could not stay in that room again unless he could furnish a boy to fight the flies, for I was tired out myself, and not only that, but I had lost at least half a pint of blood. The landlord said he would remove the mosquitoes with smoke the next night. He did so, and after that, I was not troubled so much with them. We stayed there a few days, but they held the property so high that we did not purchase any.
Fort de Chartres State Historic Site
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| Powder Magazine |
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Photographs copyright © Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
[1] Malaria was a common disease in Chicagoland and southern Illinois in pioneer days, wherever swamps, ponds, and wet bottomlands allowed mosquitoes to thrive; the illness was called ague, or bilious fever, when liver function became impaired; medical historians believe that the disease came from Europe with early explorers around 1500; early travel accounts and letters from the Midwest reports of the ague (a fever or shivering fit), such as those of Jerry Church and Roland Tinkham, the details of which are extracted from their writings:
From the Journal of Jerry Church, when he had "A Touch of the Ague" in 1830: ...and the next place we came to of any importance was the River Raisin, in Michigan. There, we met with several gentlemen from different parts of the world, speculators in land and town lots and cities, all made out on paper, and prices set at one and two hundred dollars per lot, right in the woods, and musquitoes and gallinippers thick enough to darken the sun. I recollect the first time I slept at the hotel. I told the landlord the next morning I could not stay in that room again unless he could furnish a boy to fight the flies, for I was tired out myself, and not only that, but I had lost at least half a pint of blood. The landlord said he would remove the mosquitoes with smoke the next night. He did so, and after that, I was not troubled so much with them. We stayed there a few days, but they held the property so high that we did not purchase any.
The River Raisin is a small stream of water, similar to what the Yankees call a brook. I was very much disappointed in the appearance of the country when I arrived there, for I anticipated finding something great, and I did not know that I might find the article growing on trees on the River Raisin! But it was all a mistake, for it was rather a poor section of the country. ...We then passed on to Chicago, and there I left my fair lady traveler and her brother and steered my course for Ottawa in Lasalle, Illinois. When I arrived there, I put up at the widow Pembrook's, near the town, and intended to make her house my home for some time. I kept trading round in the neighborhood for some time and, at last, was taken with a violent chill and fever and had to make my bed at the widow's, send for a doctor, and commence taking medicine, but it all did not do me much good. I kept getting weaker every day, and after I had eaten up all the doctor stuff the old doctor had, pretty much, he told me that it was a very stubborn case, and he did not know if he could remove it and thought it best to have counsel. So I sent for another doctor, and they both attended me for some time. I still kept getting worse and became so delirious as not to know anything for fifteen hours. I, at last, came to and felt relieved. After that, I began to feel better and concluded that I would not take any more medicine of any kind, and I told my landlady what I had resolved. She said that I would surely die if I did not follow the directions of the doctor. I told her that I could not help it, that all they would have to do was to bury me, for my mind was made up.
In a few days, I began to gain strength, and in a short time, I got so that I could walkabout. I then concluded that the quicker I could get out of those "Diggins," the better it would be for me. So I told my landlady that I intended to take my horse and wagon and try to get to St. Louis, for I did not think I could live long in that country. I concluded I must go further south. I accordingly had my trunk re-packed and made a move. I did not travel far in a day but, at last, arrived at St. Louis, very feeble and weak, and did not care much how the world went at that time. However, I thought I had better try and live as long as possible.
From a letter by Roland Tinkham, a relative of Gurdon S. Hubbard, describing his observations of malaria during a trip to Chicago in the summer of 1831: ...the fact cannot be controverted that on the streams and wet places, the water and air are unwholesome, and the people are sickly. In the villages and thickly settled places, it is not so bad, but it is a fact that in the country where we traveled the last 200 miles, more than one-half the people are sick; I know, for I have seen it. We called at almost every house, as they are not very near together, but still, there is no doubt that this is an uncommonly sickly season. The sickness is not often fatal; ague and fever, chill and fever, as they term it, and in some cases, bilious fever are the prevailing diseases.
From a letter by Roland Tinkham, a relative of Gurdon S. Hubbard, describing his observations of malaria during a trip to Chicago in the summer of 1831: ...the fact cannot be controverted that on the streams and wet places, the water and air are unwholesome, and the people are sickly. In the villages and thickly settled places, it is not so bad, but it is a fact that in the country where we traveled the last 200 miles, more than one-half the people are sick; I know, for I have seen it. We called at almost every house, as they are not very near together, but still, there is no doubt that this is an uncommonly sickly season. The sickness is not often fatal; ague and fever, chill and fever, as they term it, and in some cases, bilious fever are the prevailing diseases.
Friday, October 13, 2017
Curt Teich & Company Postcard Factory was founded in 1898 on Irving Park Road and Ravenswood in Chicago, Illinois.
Curt Otto Teich (March 1877–1974) was born in Greiz, Thuringia (modern-day Germany), and, following his family's traditional career as printers and publishers, worked as a printer's apprentice in Lobenstein. He emigrated to the United States in 1895, where he initially worked as a printer's devil[1] in New York, a much lower position than he had held in Germany.
Teich moved to Chicago, Illinois and started his own firm, Curt Teich & Company (C. T. & Co.), in January 1898.
At the peak of production, the company could print several million postcards in a single day. Curt Teich & Company operated from 1898 to 1978, and saved examples of every image they produced.
Teich is best known for its "Greetings From" postcards with their big letters, vivid colors which had originated in Germany in the 1890s. Teich successfully imported this style for the American market.
Teich employed hundreds of traveling salesmen, who sold picture postcards to domestic residences, and encouraged business to create advertising postcards; these salesmen also photographed the businesses and worked with the owners to create an idealized image.
The company closed in 1978. In 1982, the bulk of the collection—more than 500,000 unique postcard images relating to 10,000+ towns and cities across the United States, Canada, and 85 other countries was donated by the Teich family to the Lake County Discovery Museum in Wauconda, Illinois.
In 2016 the archives was transferred to the Newberry Library in Chicago.
I own the Chicago Postcard Museum, which presents some rare and interesting Chicago postcards from my personal collection of about 8,000 cards.
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
[1] A printer's devil was an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number
of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type.
Teich moved to Chicago, Illinois and started his own firm, Curt Teich & Company (C. T. & Co.), in January 1898.
 |
| Vintage postcard of the Curt Teich & Company Works. Few people who pass the building today realize that it once housed the largest postcard publishing company in the country. |
Teich is best known for its "Greetings From" postcards with their big letters, vivid colors which had originated in Germany in the 1890s. Teich successfully imported this style for the American market.
In 2016 the archives was transferred to the Newberry Library in Chicago.
I own the Chicago Postcard Museum, which presents some rare and interesting Chicago postcards from my personal collection of about 8,000 cards.
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
[1] A printer's devil was an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number
of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type.
Thursday, October 12, 2017
A Chicago City Railway cable car being pulled by horse after cable breaks. 1903
Before Chicago inaugurated its famed elevated "L" train system in 1892, Chicago was home to the world’s largest and most profitable network of cable cars.
The first streetcars were pulled by horses. Cable cars were the next iteration, powered by a single, continuous cable that ran the length of the route. Cars propelled and stopped themselves by attaching and detaching from the moving line.
The first cable car in Chicago ran past expectant throngs on State Street at 2:30 pm on January 28, 1882. In Chicago, cable cars ran at the same speed as their horse-drawn counterparts. But an 1882 article cites the superintendent of one of Chicago’s lines boasting this way: “When we get rid of the horse-cars we expect to make eight miles an hour with ease.”
The cable car lines spanned the length of what was then the city's boundaries. The Chicago City Railway serving the South Side had two lines that both originated in one of the earliest versions of the Loop; The State Street line ran down to 39th Street and was extended to 63rd Street in 1887. The Wabash/Cottage Grove line ran down Wabash Avenue to 22nd Street, then down Cottage Grove Avenue to 55th Street. It was extended to 71st Street in 1891.
The West Chicago Street Railroad ran a Milwaukee line up to Armitage; a Madison line to 40th Street; a Blue Island line to Western Avenue; and a Halsted Street line to O’Neil Street (now 23rd Street).
The North Chicago Street Railroad ran lines on Clark Street up to Diversey; on Wells Street up to Wisconsin; Lincoln Avenue up to Wrightwood; and Clybourn up to Cooper (now Bosworth Avenue - 300 feet east of Ashland).
The last cable car arrived at a powerhouse at State and 21st Streets on October 21, 1906, lucky to avoid the mobs that had ripped apart the cars of the final cable trains that traveled the Madison and State Street routes that summer.
WBEZ
John R. Schmidt
October 2, 2012
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| Cable car bound for Jackson Park making its way down south Cottage Grove Avenue below 39th Street. On this particular day, the cable snapped so the cable cars had to be pulled by horses. (Chicago Daily News Photo) Note the advertisement for the Chicago Auto Show which began in 1901. |
The first cable car in Chicago ran past expectant throngs on State Street at 2:30 pm on January 28, 1882. In Chicago, cable cars ran at the same speed as their horse-drawn counterparts. But an 1882 article cites the superintendent of one of Chicago’s lines boasting this way: “When we get rid of the horse-cars we expect to make eight miles an hour with ease.”
The West Chicago Street Railroad ran a Milwaukee line up to Armitage; a Madison line to 40th Street; a Blue Island line to Western Avenue; and a Halsted Street line to O’Neil Street (now 23rd Street).
The North Chicago Street Railroad ran lines on Clark Street up to Diversey; on Wells Street up to Wisconsin; Lincoln Avenue up to Wrightwood; and Clybourn up to Cooper (now Bosworth Avenue - 300 feet east of Ashland).
The last cable car arrived at a powerhouse at State and 21st Streets on October 21, 1906, lucky to avoid the mobs that had ripped apart the cars of the final cable trains that traveled the Madison and State Street routes that summer.
WBEZ
John R. Schmidt
October 2, 2012
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