Fort Sheridan Amusement Park in Highwood, Illinois (1898-1908)

Fort Sheridan is a residential neighborhood spread among Lake Forest, Highwood, and Highland Park in Lake County, Illinois. It was originally established as Fort Sheridan, a United States Army Post named after Civil War Cavalry General Philip Sheridan, to honor his service to Chicago.

On July 30, 1898, Fort Sheridan Park had its grand opening! The amusement center was created at the corner of Clay Street and Sheridan Road in Highwood, Illinois. 

The park's rustic beauty and entertainment attracted large crowds who began arriving in droves in Highwood aboard Dinkies (trolley cars) on the "Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railway Company," North Shore Line (AKA: Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad).

Fort Sheridan Park - Chicago Tribune Ad, August 6, 1899

The amusement park attracted hundreds of people for band concerts, vaudeville shows, dancing in an open-air pavilion, beer gardens, and food concessions. It is unknown if there were any mechanical rides.

Fort Sheridan Park - Chicago Tribune, August 4, 1900.

Fort Sheridan Park, Inter Ocean, July 1, 1900

Fort Sheridan Park was destroyed by fire in September of 1908.

Belvidere Daily Republican, May 6, 1909, Tabernacle and Keeley Cure.
A resident of Highwood for two weeks, staying at the notorious Park Hotel, Pat Crowe is claimed to be boosting a scheme for the erection of an immense tabernacle at the Fort Sheridan Park that will seat an audience of 5,000 with a vigorous temperance campaign there and the changing of the Park Hotel into a branch of the Keeley Cure.

Crowe is getting well known in Highwood and while he has talked to many has neither denied nor affirmed the rumors about his plans. He has made no breaks nor backsliding and has quietly gone about his business which is the promotion branch of the Keeley Cure.

Fort Sheridan Park posted an ad on July 1, 1909 for lease. 

Fully equipped and ready for operation, seating capacity of 1,800; best location in the country adjoining Fort Sheridan; a big moneymaker; can be run year-round; excellent opportunity if taken at once, as present owner has other business requiring all his time. Inquire of H.D. BARRY, Highwood, Ill. Phone 386 Highwood.


Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Illinois Central Locomotive №. 2500 Gives Centralia Illinois Permanent Memorial to Age of Steam. Dedicated on October 6, 1962

The clanging of a train engine's bell has rung over Fairview Park beginning in September of 1962 when a group of dedicated citizens labored eight days to move a steam locomotive there. The problem was that they had to move the engine down a busy street by laying sections of the track ahead of it and then moving it with winch trucks.

The corner of Oak Street and Broadway, Centralia, Illinois. 1962

The corner of Oak Street and Broadway, Centralia, Illinois. circa 2014

It was described at one of the biggest history-making projects ever undertaken by a town in this area. 

Press, radio and television coverage was given the project throughout Southern Illinois and including metropolitan St. Louis as this city undertook to dedicate the steam engine as a memorial to the Age of Steam - commemorating the railroad industry which played such an important role in building this city. 

Children climbed over the old engine, №. 2500, and argued over who was going to pull the cord. The locomotive glistened under a bright fall sun as it rested on its platform, signaling the end of a year's work for the large group of Centralians. 

It will rest there for future generations to see what kind of engines once pulled the trains over the nation's rails. A special trust fund was set up for maintenance of the engine, as stipulated by Wayne Johnston, president of the Illinois Central Railroad Company when he okayed the railroad's giving the locomotive up. 

That move came as a surprise since the old engine was worth about $10,000 In scrap metal. It had been destined for the cutting torch when such steam engine enthusiasts as Jim Adams and retired engineer Ernie Dolan started the move to let up a tribute to railroading. 

While others were observing Labor Day Weekend last September, volunteers began the laborious operation of moving the huge locomotive down Broadway.

Large crowds of curious spectators gathered and watched that first night when crews sweated to maneuver the engine around a makeshift bend to get if off the IC tracks and onto the street. 

And many watched as men worked well into the night and sometimes into the early morning hours during the next week. Eight days later they pulled the engine onto the platform. 

While they were moving it, one worker sustained an injured foot and another time a speeding motorist narrowly missed running down two police officers and crashing into a group of workers.

The workers, many of them railroaders, some retired, all donated their time. Local businesses donated materials and machinery to move the engine and build the platform for it at the park.

Soon after its arrival at Fairview, a fence was erected around №. 2500 and organized tours for Centralians and curious tourists alike were organized.

Members of the moving committee said several hundred visitors went through the engine on its first day at the park. Then they fixed up a registration book and in the past seven months, several thousand persons have signed their names after touring the engine.

Spotlights Illuminate No. 2500 nightly. The gate in the fence around it is closed then, but motorists often stop to observe the black engine.

Locomotive 2500 was the first engine ever to be issued a clearance card and running order down the main street of a city. Dispatcher F. W. Howell at the IC passenger station issued the order which gave the huge engine top priority down Broadway on September 4,1962.

It read: "Engine №. 2500 run extra from Oak Street to Fairview Park. Has right overall trains. Not to exceed a speed of 100 miles per hour." Lester Hanrahan, call-boy, called the following phantom crew: Engineer Ernie Dolan, Fireman J. W. Bailie, Conductor Eddie Copple, Brakeman Steve Opolony and Flagman Allen Ferguson.

Workmen said the moving of the steam engine was one of the most difficult railroad operations ever performed anywhere.

The engine's background is not able. It was built in 1921 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Ohio. Its original number was 2943. It has two small trucks in the lead, big driving wheels and two small trucks or trailers behind. 

Engine Boiler and Controls of Locomotive №. 2500.

It was designed for heavy freight service but was sometimes used fast freight or passenger service. To make it dual purpose, the IC mounted the boiler on a new frame, changed the diameter of the wheels from 63 to 70 inches, and dropped one pair of driving wheels, substituting two small engine trucks in their place. 

Steam pressure was raised from 200 to 240 pounds. The engine is 96½ feet long. Its cylinders are 30 x 30. It weighs about 225 tons and has a total capacity of 24 tons of coal and 11,000 gallons of water.

During its 41 years of service, the engine traveled about a million miles. It was estimated that №. 2500 could produce 7000 horsepower, capable of pulling a 125-car train 25 miles an hour.

According to Dolan, a couple of high school boys, David Kracht and Lynn Redmond, originated the idea of a locomotive for a memorial. They gave the idea to Adams who later became chairman of the trust fund.

The fundraising was a long and tedious drive, members of the committee later said. The contributions ranged from 5¢ to $500. 

The cooperation extended by Individuals and companies alike was noted by city officials, Chamber of Commerce officers, and others as a progressive step forward for the community. 

Said Adams at the October 8 dedication ceremonies: “The wholehearted cooperation shown in this project demonstrates that we can cooperate in many other things.”

He continued: "The 2500 remains an example of magnificence from the colorful period in history in railroads known as the Age of Steam to which the 2500 stands as a memorial.

H. H. Koonce, superintendent of the St. Louis division of the IC Railroad, was the principal speaker. He told a hushed crowd; “Whistles screaming, headlights shining, her day is gone. She’ll blow her whistle no more,” he said.

Dedicated on October 6, 1962.

The Story of the 2500 

From the Centralia (Illinois) Sentinel Newspaper, May 26, 1963.
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Rush Medical College, Anatomy Dissection Lab, Chicago, Illinois. (1900)

Rush Medical College was one of the first medical colleges in the state of Illinois and was chartered in 1837, two days before the city of Chicago was chartered, and opened with 22 students on December 4, 1843. 

Its founder, Dr. Daniel Brainard, named the school in honor of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the only physician with medical school training to be a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He later taught Meriwether Lewis the basic medical skills for his expedition with William Clark to the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Rush was also known as the "Father of American Psychiatry."

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Charter Oak School in Schuline, Illinois. A One-Room Octagon School.

Charter Oak School is located one mile east of the rural community of Schuline in Randolph County. The structure is one of the few remaining octagonal-shaped, one-room, school buildings in America. 

Classes were held in this building from 1873 until 1953 when it was closed due to consolidation. Charter Oak School was the third school to be built in the area. The first was a one-room log school and later a one-room frame building was constructed.

In the early 1870s a young teacher named Daniel Ling came to the Schuline community. Records show he was “educated in the East, was scholarly, could read Greek, and was a skilled architect.” Ling felt “an eight cornered building with windows on each side would offer improved lighting since light comes from all sides as nature intended, and would also offer better wind resistance to storms.” 

Blackboards painted on walls could be seen from any part of the room when lesson outlines were given. Ling convinced the local school board of directors and area residents that his architectural plan of an octagonal building was sound, and was chosen to supervise construction of the building. Construction by carpenters William Holcomb and Franklin Adams cost $1000 which was raised in a bond issue.

Up to this time, the names of Old Oak, Boyd School and District 7 were used locally to refer to the school. Residents and students were very proud of their new brick building and wanted a special name for it. A large, beautiful oak tree stood on the grounds. According to early residents, a student, Agnes Houston, suggested the name Charter Oak in honor of the famous Charter Oak of the Connecticut Colony.

School started in the new building in the fall of 1873 with Miss Avis Allen as teacher. Attendance varied throughout the years with a maximum of 46 pupils reported one year. The school also became a community center and was used for public and farm meetings, church and Sunday school, spelling bees, speaking contests, political rallies and other civic affairs.
Throughout the years, structural changes were made. Some of the changes were made for convenience and some to conform to State regulations. These included a bell, tuck-pointing, adding a vestibule, two additional windows and a door. Charter Oak was closed in 1953 when the need for the little one-room schools declined and the children were sent to larger consolidated schools.
The vacant school building deteriorated and became a target for vandalism. Later it was sold at public auction and a former teacher, Miss Nellie Ohms, purchased it for sentimental reasons. Because of its unique design and historical significance, the Randolph County Historical Society became interested in the building. Miss Ohms was contacted and was very receptive to its restoration. In 1960, it was sold to the Society for $600. Numerous fund raising events were held to pay for the building and for its restoration. The most famous of these was the Corn Fest, which has become an annual event, held on the first Saturday in August.

Major restoration was completed in 1968. Then in 1970, the site became an official Illinois State Historical Site and a historic plaque donated by that office was erected on the grounds. In 1978, the school was placed on the National Register of Historical Places. 

A board of directors supervises maintenance and upkeep of the grounds and building. The school is still being used on field trips where elementary school children spend a day experiencing what school was like in the past. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Abraham Lincoln, the Only U.S. President to Hold a Patent.

Abraham Lincoln filed for a patent on March 10, 1849, and received Patent №. 6469 for his "Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals" on May 22, 1849, while a Congressman in Illinois.

Abraham Lincoln's patent is a patented invention to lift boats over shoals and obstructions in a river. It is the only United States patent ever registered to a President of the United States. Lincoln conceived the idea of inventing a mechanism that would lift a boat over shoals and obstructions when on two different occasions the boat on which he traveled got hung up on obstructions. Documentation of this patent was discovered in 1997.

This device was composed of large bellows attached to the sides of a boat that was expandable due to air chambers. His successful patent application led to his drafting and delivering two lectures on the subject of patents while he was President. Lincoln was at times a patent attorney and was familiar with the patent application process as well as patent lawsuit proceedings. Among his notable patent law experiences was litigation over the mechanical reaper.

CLICK TO READ ─► THE ACTUAL PATENT LETTER.

The invention stemmed from Lincoln's experiences ferrying travelers and carrying freight on the Great Lakes and some Midwestern rivers.

In 1860, Lincoln wrote his autobiography and recounted that while in his late teens he took a flatboat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers from his home in Indiana to New Orleans while employed as a hired hand. The son of the boat owner kept him company and the two went out on this new undertaking without any other helpers.

After moving to Macon County, Illinois, Lincoln made an additional trip a few years later on another flatboat that went from Beardstown, Illinois, to New Orleans. He, John D. Johnston (his stepmother's son), and John Hanks were hired as laborers by Denton Offutt to take a flatboat to New Orleans. They were to join Offutt at Springfield, Illinois. In early March 1831, the boys purchased a large canoe and traveled south on the Sangamon River. When they finally found him, they discovered Offutt had failed to secure a contract for a freight trip in Beardstown. Thus, purchasing a large canoe was an unnecessary expense. They then tried to cut their losses and worked for Offutt for twelve dollars per month cutting timber and building a boat at the Old Sangamon town (fifteen miles northwest of Springfield) on the Sangamon River. The new boat carried them to New Orleans based upon the original contract with Offutt.

As William Horman first wrote, "necessity is the mother of invention." Before Offutt's flatboat could reach the Illinois River, it got hung up on a milldam at the Old Sangamon town. As the boat was sinking, Lincoln took action, unloading some cargo to right the boat, then drilling a hole in the bow with a large auger borrowed from the local cooperage. After the water drained, he re-plugged the hole. With local help, he then portaged the empty boat over the dam and was able to complete the trip to New Orleans.

At the age of 23, Lincoln started his political career in New Salem. Near the top of his agenda was the improvement of navigation on the Sangamon River. Lincoln's law partner and biographer, William H. Herndon, also reports an additional incident at the time: a boat Lincoln was on got stranded on a shoal; the boat gradually swung clear and was dislodged after much manual exertion. This event, along with the Offutt's boat/milldam incident, prompted Lincoln to start thinking about how to lift vessels over river obstructions and shoals. He eventually came up with an idea for inflatable flotation. Patent №. 6469 was awarded to Abraham Lincoln on May 22, 1849, while still a Congressman in Illinois. Called "Buoying Vessels Over Shoals," Lincoln envisioned a system of waterproof fabric bladders that could be inflated when necessary to help ease a stuck ship over such obstacles. When crew members knew their ship was stuck, or at risk of hitting a shallow, Lincoln's invention could be activated, which would inflate the air chambers along the bottom of the watercraft to lift it above the water's surface, providing enough clearance to avoid a disaster. As part of the research process, Lincoln designed a scale model of a ship outfitted with the device. This model (built and assembled with the assistance of a Springfield, Ill., mechanic named Walter Davis) is on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

After reporting to Washington for his two-year term in Congress (beginning March 1847), Lincoln retained Zenas C. Robbins, a patent attorney. Robbins most probably had drawings done by Robert Washington Fenwick, his apprentice artist. Robbins processed the application, which became Patent №. 6469 on May 22, 1849. However, it was never produced for practical use. There are doubts as to whether it would have actually worked: It "likely would not have been practical," stated Paul Johnston, curator of maritime history at the National Museum of American History, "because you need a lot of force to get the buoyant chambers even two feet down into the water. My gut feeling is that it might have been made to work, but Lincoln's considerable talents lay elsewhere."

About that time, Lincoln took his son Robert Todd to the Old Patent Office Building model room to view the displays, sowing one of the youngster's fondest memories. Lincoln himself continued to have a special affinity for the site.

Abraham Lincoln's Patent.

CBS News Almanac.

Lincoln's invention was never manufactured and experts believed it would not have worked properly.

Abraham Lincoln had a strong attraction towards inventions and patents and as a lawyer was involved in patent-related litigation. Furthermore, he gave two famous speeches on inventions and patents.

The first speech (First Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions) was delivered on April 6, 1858, at the "Association of Young Men" in Bloomington, Illinois. The second speech, which would become the most popular one, was delivered on April 6, 1858, in Jacksonville, Illinois.  

The novel part begins by comparing the US youth at that time, which Lincoln calls “Young America” with the human beings of antiquity or “Old Fogy” represented by Adam, as the first man. According to Lincoln, the main difference between the “Young America” that had the world at its feet and the first human beings, who were at the mercy of nature, is the result of Discoveries, Inventions, and Improvements. These, in turn, are the result of observation, reflection, and experiment.”

Other Presidents have invented things too.
Thomas Jefferson was an inventor. Among Thomas Jefferson’s inventions were such devices as the macaroni machine that he invented in 1787, the swivel chair, the spherical sundial, the moldboard plow, and the cipher wheel, which was an ingenious way to allow people to code and decode messages. Jefferson’s cipher wheel was used until 1802, and then it was "reinvented" just prior to World War I and used by the US Army and other military services to send messages back and forth. Jefferson served as American minister to France in the 1780s and, as a result of his travels throughout Europe, was able to adapt some of the things he saw in Europe to benefit Americans as well.

Jefferson felt that all people should have access to new technology and, since he didn’t want others to be deprived of the benefits that new inventions bring, he never applied for a patent on any of his inventions. He considered patents to be an unfair monopoly. Several of Thomas Jefferson's inventions are still in use today; they deal mainly with agricultural and mechanical products. He also was responsible for introducing French fries into the United States.

President George Washington was also a successful inventor, and in 1772 he received a trademark for his brand of flour. 

But, Abraham Lincoln is the only President to hold a patent. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Italian Pharmacy in the Little Italy Neighborhood, Chicago. circa 1901

The Italian Pharmacy was located at Jefferson & Ewing Street (Ewing was renamed and renumbered in 1909), now Polk Street, which in 1901 was a part of the South Lawndale community and was in the Little Italy neighborhood.

The Italian pharmacy in the Little Italy Neighborhood, Chicago. circa 1901

The Little Italy neighborhood used to be larger, but like many other neighborhoods of Chicago was affected by the construction of new expressways. It lost a considerable chunk of land when the Eisenhower Expressway was built in the 1950s. It lost even more real estate when the University of Illinois-Chicago moved into the area in the 1960s.

The store across the street, Ronga Drugs, is listed in the "The Era Druggists' Directory, Volume 17," with an address of: 1031 W. Polk Street, Chicago. There seems to have been two Ewing Streets renamed in Chicago in 1909; one renamed to Polk Street, and the other renamed to Cabrini Street. Polk Street is ½ block north of Cabrini Street.

Reference: The Original Chicago Street Renaming Document of 1909
                   The Original Chicago Street Renumbering Document of 1909

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Ferris Wheel Park at the 1200 block of N. Clark St. (today, 2600 block of N. Clark St.), in Chicago, Illinois. (1896-1903)

Click the picture for a full-size image.

Though the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition closed on November 1, 1893, the Observation [Ferris] Wheel stood idle on the Midway until April 29, 1894, when a new site was found. It took 86 days and cost $14,833 (today $445,000) to dismantle it.

In 1895, the Wheel's inventor, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., found a new site for the observation wheel on Chicago's North Side, in the Park West neighborhood of the Lincoln Park community and named it "Ferris Wheel Park." It was at Clark Street and Wrightwood Avenue, only 20 minutes by public transportation from the city's principal hotels and railway stations. There were very few motor vehicles during these early years.

The Directors sold bonds hoping to landscape the grounds, build a restaurant, a beer garden, a bandshell, a Vaudeville theater, and paint the wheel of its cars. Ferris' partner in the plan was Charles T. Yerkes, Jr. (whose involvement with the park is debatable), the transit magnate who owned streetcar lines adjacent to the site.

sidebar

The Duryea brothers created their first gasoline-powered "horseless carriage" in 1893. America's First Automobile Race took place in Chicago in 1895. 

Ferris chose the location of the “end of the line” and car barn (called the “Limits”) at Clark and Wrightwood exclusively to serve his proposed Ferris Wheel Amusement Park.

However, resistance to the project arose from the community and delayed but did not preclude its opening in the fall of that year. The community, nonetheless, could vote for the area closed to the sale of liquor, which doomed the planned beer garden.

Construction of the Ferris Wheel. The Second Church of Christ Scientist still stands at 2700 N Pine Grove Ave, Chicago.

An admission ticket for the ride confirms that a vaudeville program had been introduced as part of the attraction. Additionally, a photograph shows a sign advertising vaudeville shows. The address on the ticket, 1288 North Clark Street, is misleading on two counts regarding where the Wheel was actually located. 

In 1909, the city of Chicago undertook a street renaming and renumbering project. For instance, many of Hyde Park's streets obtained their modern names during this time. In this case, the street number "1288 North Clark" from the year 1896 translates to a location on the northeast side of the 2600 block of North Clark Street, near Wrightwood Avenue, after the renumbering process. 

Indeed, the whole strip of land from what is now 2619 to 2665 N. Clark was to be devoted to the enterprise.

FILM

.

Amazing footage of the Ferris Wheel running in 1896 at Clark and Wrightwood in Lincoln Park, Chicago. The vantage point here is looking from the southwest corner of Wrightwood, northeast across Clark Street. Filmed by the Lumiere Brothers and is one of the first films ever shot in Chicago.

The ride, which some have jocularly claimed drew more complaints and lawsuits than patrons, experienced financial problems and was seized by the Cook County Sheriff in November 1896, just before 37-year-old George Washington Gale Ferris' death from tuberculosis in November. Ferris Wheel Park continued to remain open for business. 

As a result, the community of Lake View lost the opportunity to the Park West neighborhood of the Lincoln Park community. Shortly thereafter, and with vocal citizen opposition from a newly formed civic group called the Improvement and Protection Organization (IPO), the owners of the new park, which was in receivership, had to file for bankruptcy in 1900 due to a lack of local community support and general city patronage.

sidebar

One non-stop revolution at 2.5 mph took approximately 2 minutes.

The lack of support for the park was due to its location within a residential subdivision, and the residents of both communities of Lincoln Park and Lake View were not fans of the new owner of the park, Charles Tyson Yerkes, Jr., who owned the Chicago Electric Street Railway that owned and operated streetcars on Evanston Avenue (now Broadway) and Clark Street. 

For years, Mr. Yerkes tried to circumvent property owners by trying, through the city government, to acquire property for his company without due process. 

Imagine trying to locate a Six Flags amusement park in the middle of an urban residential street. 

The wheel remained until 1903 when it was dismantled and transported to the site of what would be its last hurrah. The Ferris wheel was brought to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1904 World's Fair. "The Louisiana Purchase Exposition" at the St. Louis World's Fair was opened to the public on April 30, 1904. 

View looking northwest from the lakefront at Fullerton, Chicago. 1895

After the St. Louis Fair, the Ferris wheel was sold for scrap when a sale to Coney Island amusement park failed to materialize. It was destroyed with 100 pounds of dynamite (after several attempts), and the parts were taken away for salvage. Local legend says the Ferris Wheel's axle was buried with the rest of the fair's rubble in makeshift landfills in Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri.

THE 1893 WORLD'S FAIR LIBRARY

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

A very rare set of four Pre-World's Columbian Exposition postal cards from 1892, Chicago.

Below is a very rare complete set of four unused pre-Columbian postal cards. Published by the American Lithographic Company, New York. 

This complete set of four postal cards, from my personal collection, was issued in mid-1892 to invite world leaders and VIPs to the dedication ceremonies (held on October 21, 1892, even though the fairgrounds were not completed), and welcome them to the opening day of the World's Fair on May 1, 1893.

The official World's Fair seal is not present on these
four postal cards which included 1¢ postage.

When the fair opened in 1893, a set of 10 postal cards, 2 more were quickly added, for a 12-card set, which was the first commercially produced postcards to be sold to the general public in the United States.

Courtesy of my "Chicago Postcard Museum." 

Pre-World's Columbian Exposition 1893 - U.S. Naval Exhibit

Pre-World's Columbian Exposition 1893 - Fisheries Building

Pre-World's Columbian Exposition 1893 - Woman's Building

About the S.C. Skipton Stamp. Mr. Skipton was the first Editor of the Philatelic Journal of Great Britain. He was a rabid collector of postage stamps from around the world. Mr. Skipton always had a fondness for British stamps. During the last ten years of his life, he accumulated what may be considered the finest collection of the world's rarest postcards, in Great Britain, numbering over fifteen thousand specimens. Mr. Skipton used the ink stamp above to press on one of the postcards in each set he owned.

Pre-World's Columbian Exposition 1893 - Agricultural Building

The Back of the Pre-World's Columbian Exposition 1893 Postal Cards

Copyright © Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Women of Influence - Babette Mandel (1842-1945), Shaping Chicago History.

Babette Mandel around the
time of her wedding, 1871.

Babette Mandel, Great-niece of Michael Reese and wife of one of the founder of Mandel Brothers department store, came to Chicago at the age of four and grew up to become one of the foremost woman philanthropists of Chicago.

Her parents, Emanuel Frank and Elise Reese Frank, left Aufhausen in Bavaria in the summer of 1846, drawn by hopes of greater prosperity.

Michael Reese, an uncle then living in California, encouraged them to come to America and set aside funds for their support. After a journey by ship and stagecoach that took several weeks, the Franks and their ten children arrived in Chicago on Yom Kippur.

The family settled in a house on Clark Street north of Madison. Sadly, in 1855 Emanuel Frank was killed in an accident, and though she excelled at school, Babette was forced to spend much of her childhood helping to maintain the household.

On April 18, 1871, when she was 29, Babette married Emanuel Mandel. Emanuel’s brothers, Leon and Simon, had founded a dry goods store with Leon Klein in 1855. The business was reorganized as the Mandel Brothers store when Klein retired and Emanuel was brought in as a third partner.

The Mandel Brothers store was then located near Clark and Van Buren Streets. When the Chicago Fire destroyed the building in October 1871, just six months after Emanuel and Babette were married, the Mandels re-established their store on the South Side. 

In 1875 they moved to the Colonnade Building on State and Madison, owned by Marshall Field. Intent on building up State Street, Field persuaded the Mandels to stay by means of a generous, long-term lease, and soon the business was flourishing again. 

The Mandels were active members of Sinai Temple, and in 1888, at a meeting held at Sinai, Leon and Emanuel were among those who pledged money to found the Jewish Manual Training School (later the Jewish Training School). The idea behind the School was to give immigrants manual skills that would enable them to support themselves, while also promoting Americanization. Located on the West Side, the School taught cooking, sewing, woodworking, English and citizenship to Eastern European immigrants.

Babette Mandel was prominent among those who organized the School, at first serving as a director, and then as its president. The Jewish Training School closed in 1912; the inrush of immigrants that had made it so essential was largely over by then.

Chicago Lying-In Hospital and Dispensary was founded in 1895 with the help of Babette Mandel. She also served on its board. This was a maternity clinic at first housed in four rooms on Maxwell Street. It was later renamed the Chicago Maternity Center.

Inspired by the success of Hull House, Mrs. Mandel and others established the Maxwell Street Settlement in 1893 as a cultural center for newlyarrived Jewish immigrants. 

Babette Mandel was a leader in many other organizations as well: Chicago Women’s Aid, Sarah Greenebaum Lodge (United Order of True Sisters), the Chicago Section of the [National] Council of Jewish Women, and others. 

The achievement she is best known for, however, is the establishment of the West Side Dispensary in 1903. Originally opened in 1899 at Clinton and Judd Streets, this building was inadequate, and Babette Mandel gave $10,000 to reestablish it at Maxwell and Morgan Streets. Most of the patients were Russian or East European immigrants from the West Side. In 1910, she again gave a large sum of money to establish the Dispensary in new quartersand at this time, the Dispensary was dedicated to the memory of her husband, Emanuel Mandel, who had died in an accident in 1908. Mrs. Mandel continued to support the clinic with large gifts over the years, and in 1928 it was incorporated into Michael Reese Hospital as the Emanuel and Babette Mandel Clinic. 

Most of Babette Mandel’s charity work was carried out while she raised their three children: Frank, Edwin, and Rose. When she died on March 12, 1945, she left $50,000 to the Jewish Charities of Chicago and $25,000 each to Michael Reese Hospital and the Chicago Maternity Center, among other bequests. 

Her son Edwin became president of Mandel Brothers department store and was also president of Michael Reese Hospital. In 1960, Mandel Brothers was sold to the Weiboldt Corporation, which closed the store in the late 1970s or early 80s.

At a time when women were not expected to work outside the home, Babette Mandel, like many women of her generation, found a vocation and purpose that allowed her to extend her role as mother beyond the confines of the home. Her significance lies in the way she used her position of wealth and privilege to help the Jewish community at a time when immigrants were in desperate need.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

WWI Machine Gun Company, Chicago Regiment of Colored Soldiers, 8th Illinois Infantry.

WWI Machine Gun Company, Chicago Regiment of Colored Soldiers, 8th Illinois Infantry.

The Jewish Industrial and Manual Training School of Chicago.

The Jewish (sometimes written as Hebrew) Industrial and Manual Training School of Chicago, 554 W. 12th Place, Chicago, Illinois.

The Occident (American Jewish Advocate Monthly Periodical) - May 25, 1888.

THE BEGINNING
Monday evening, May 21, 1888, the newly elected board of directors met according to a call at the Sinai Temple's vestry rooms to elect executive officers for the ensuing term. Mr. Chas. Schwab was nominated for president and was unanimously elected. The secretary was instructed to cast one ballot for Mrs. Martin Bache for vice-president. Mr. J. L. Gatzert was nominated for treasurer and received the entire vote (his bond with two endorsements to be $50,000). Mr. Henry Greenebaum was next unanimously chosen as the corresponding secretary. Madame Joseph Spiegel received the unanimous vote for financial secretary.

Occident (American Jewish Advocate Monthly Periodical)   

November 13, 1891   

A VISIT TO THE JEWISH TRAINING SCHOOL
A magnificent institution richly endowed by Leon Mandel and the Jews of Chicago by voluntary contributions, situated on Judd between Clinton and Jefferson streets and in the midst of the Russian-Polish settlements; containing now some eight hundred children of both sexes and under the superintendency of Prof. Gabriel Bamberger.

The editor of The Occident paid a brief visit to this School last week and was most agreeably impressed with the system, order, decorum and general arrangement of the School, which is destined to reform and improve the new generation of these helpless people, who were driven from their homes and firesides in Russia. We noticed many interesting features that exhibit the acumen of a thorough pedagogue and, by progressive instruction, lead the hands and minds into channels of practical knowledge, even the youngest children from 3 to 5 years of age. A corps of able assistant teachers are at work in carrying out the discipline and systematic studies, which are so greatly simplified and improved that nothing can impede the acquisition of all elementary branches of education. It is not only a pleasure to observe the deft hands of those children in their work but one of the greatest blessings that humanity is capable of bestowing upon their less favored brethren. 

Eighteen spacious school rooms are now fully occupied by these children. From the most infantile apartments to the most advanced and higher branches of tuition, this School is a model. The manual training department is, however, the great aim and is destined to make the pupils not only self-sustaining in after years but useful members of society. The English language only is used. The kindergarten for the infantile is one of the most inductive of its character in our city. The sewing, dress-making, embroidering, mending and repairing departments are well nigh perfect. The modeling and designing in the clay department is a feature that in our youth was not known except in schools of art and sculpture, but even this is a part of this School to bring out all the genius and talent that children and youth possess. The greatest facilities are given in this School, and great care is taken in giving children physical exercise through gymnastics and calisthenics.

The ventilation and heating of the rooms are perfect. The scholar of this institution, when he graduates, may retain a record of his work from the day he enters until he leaves the institution. Professor Bamberger is the patentee of a triangular pencil used in this School and other institutions in this country, which has entirely supplanted the slate. It does away with smut and avoids the crating and scratching so annoying to many. Altogether, this Jewish Training School is a model of its kind in the Far West.

HISTORY
The School was founded with a generous grant of $20,000 from Mr. Leon Mandel in May of 1888 to maintain a kindergarten for children too young to attend public School, a kitchen garden and a sewing school for girls more advanced in years and particularly a manual training school where boys may learn to love work, find out for what kind of work they are best fitted, and receive that preparation and assistance which will make them intelligent, skillful, competent workmen, in that department best adapted to their abilities. It was a manual training school, not a trade school, where pupils received an excellent general education.

The School was a beautiful four-story building designed by Adler and Sullivan, made possible by private donations, located on Judd Street between Clinton and Jefferson, in the immediate neighborhood where most of the children lived.

The Russian Jews emigrated to Chicago in large numbers in the 1880s, and the purpose of the Jewish Training School was to teach the English language and familiarize the new arrivals with American methods and institutions. The School's curriculum was designed to equip the sons and daughters of the Jewish poor with the power of making a healthy, honest and honorable livelihood and with the desire of living in a respectable and self-respecting manner.

For economic and religious reasons, the newly arrived Russian Jews huddled together in what became known as the Ghetto until a city within a city was built up where, if the building had been removed, each person would have less than a square yard upon which to stand. Centuries of persecution and restrictions in occupations had rendered the newcomers unfit to grapple with the conditions under which they now lived.

The School's curriculum was based upon corrective measures and training in handwork.

Sewing class in 1892 at the Hebrew Manual Training School in Chicago, Illinois.

From its founding, the Jewish Training School accepted boys and girls, and one goal was to place before these children as many elementary trade activities as possible in order to find out their bent and then encourage and direct them along lines which their natural abilities seemed to trend. The academic work was to be as practical as possible and to be brought in touch with the handwork. For the girls, the School sought to connect them with the domestic and commercial worlds. The School building was destroyed by fire in 1953.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

#JewishThemed #JewishLife

W.C. Ritchie & Company, Chicago, Illinois. Fiber powder containers for World War I Ammunition.

Women working in ordnance plants in World War I: making fiber powder containers for 3" Stokes gun ammunition. Women crimping top on fibre containers at W.C. Ritchie & Co., Chicago, Illinois.

This manufacturer of paper boxes, founded by the Canadian-born William C. Ritchie, began to operate in Chicago in 1866 as Ritchie & Duck. Its name became W. C. Ritchie & Co. in 1881. By 1910, the company employed 1,100 workers at two Chicago box plants; it also owned a factory in nearby Aurora. Women working in the WWI effort, circa 1915. 

In 1955, W. C. Ritchie was purchased by the Stone Container Corp., another Chicago-based paper box manufacturer. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.