The Complete Story of the November 13, 1909 Cherry, Illinois Mine Disaster that killed 259 men.

The St. Paul Coal Company, which owned the Cherry, Illinois mine, opened in 1905 to supply coal for the trains of its controlling company, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad.

St. Paul Coal Company - Cherry, Illinois Mine.

On November 13, 1909, the Cherry Mine employed 481 men and boys. So many of them were from the Streator area that Cherry was known as a Streator "colony." The mine at Cherry was a large one, considered clean, safe, and well-run.

There were three veins, with most of the work at this time in the second, about 360 feet down. On Saturday the 13th, work proceeded as usual, with the sounds of picks, men chatting and rumbling mule-driven cars echoing through the tunnels. Because a power line had broken a month earlier, the mine was lit by open kerosene lamps, which cast a flickering light through the underground passages.

Typical Coal Mining at the turn of the 20th Century (circa 1910).

At about 1:15 PM, a coal car loaded with six bales of hay (fodder for the mules) was shoved out of the elevator at the second level and hitched to a train. Some feet farther along, the hay was dropped off to await the trip down to the mule stable on the third level. 

Somehow, the hay caught fire — either because of oil dripping from one of the lamps or a fallen lamp itself. At first, no one thought much of the fire, and attempts to put it out were somewhat disorganized. In minutes, however, the beams overhead had caught fire, and flames licked outward at an ever-growing rate. The burning hay was then dumped down the shaft, but it became jammed there and did not fall to the third level. There was no underground alarm system in the mine, and although miners nearby soon realized that the blaze had gotten out of hand and that the only course left was to flee, men in distant tunnels worked on, unaware of what was happening. 

Some 200 men and boys made their way to the surface, some through escape shafts, some using the hoisting cage. Soon, the corridors were filled with smoke, flames, crashing timbers, and men running frantically to the one escape shaft that remained open. 

Above ground, puffs of smoke rising from the shaft were the first sign of trouble. The alarm was sounded, and a crowd of anxious relatives and other townspeople soon collected.

Crowds begin to gather as the alarm sounds!

Crowds gathered around the mine.

Some miners who had escaped returned to the mine to aid their coworkers. Mine superintendent John Bundy of Streator was one of the first on the scene.

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In later years, one miners boy recalled that he had wanted to go down to help but had been admonished by his mother who was at his side says, "Don't you go over there — your father's got his hands full." He never saw his father again. 

Dr. L.D. Howe, also of Streator, a physician for the mining company, went below to help but was soon raised to the top and forced to remain there to minister to the injured.

A general view of the mouth of the shaft shows smoke escaping.

Bundy headed a group of twelve volunteers who made six trips back and forth on the cage to search out and bring up men trapped below. After the seventh descent, the signals to the operator on top were weak and confused, and for agonizing minutes, he refused to pull up the cage despite frantic pleas from bystanders.

When he finally yielded, the hushed onlookers saw, to their horror, only twelve blackened, twisted bodies — men who had given their lives for their friends.

Waiting for another victim to be brought to the surface.

Along with Bundy were Alexander Norberg, the assistant mine manager; John Sczabrinski, a cager; Joseph Robeza, a driver; and Robert Clark, Andrew McLuckie, James Spiers, Harry Stewart, and Mike Suhe, all miners. The three others, who did not even work at the mine but had rushed over to help, were Dominic Dormento, a grocer; John Flood, a clothier; and Isaac Lewis, a liveryman.

CLICK THE DIAGRAM FOR A FULL-SIZE VIEW

After this, the cage was lowered and raised many times, but it always returned empty, and so was soon halted. Tons of water were poured in but fell to the third level and had little effect on the roaring inferno in the second vein.

John Passco, the lad who came up through the fire
at the Cherry mine, November 13, 1909

The large circulating fan was reversed to blow out the fire, but this only ignited the fan house and the escape ladders and stairs in the secondary shaft, trapping more miners below. Late Sunday, heavy planks were thrown over the shaft opening to smother the raging flames; wet sand was dumped on the planks, and the two shafts were closed off to extinguish the fire.

The town reached the brink of a riot when those with relatives below realized that some men might manage to climb to the surface only to find their escape cut off.  

Wrecked Air Shaft at Cherry Mine.

Sunday, November 14, crowds gather in the afternoon.

When mine officials decided to seal the shaft, with miners still trapped below, the Illinois National Guard was called out to control the crowds.

Sixth Illinois Infantry Company "K" from Galesburg, Illinois.

Passenger train with Sixth Illinois Infantry Company "K" boarding.

On Wednesday, rumors circulated that thudding sounds had been heard below, and two companies of state militia were brought in to quiet the townspeople. Below, meanwhile, some men had remained alive for a while, unable to reach the shaft because of the heat and deadly gases. They clustered together in trapped and hopeless little groups.

Group of anxious women waiting to identify their Husbands who were entombed in the Mine disaster, November 13, 1909.

Beside the body of a young miner named Sam Howard, a recovery team found this note: "There are many dead mules and men. I tried to save some but came near losing myself." Other entries followed, and finally, a weak scrawl dated 12:44 PM on Monday: "Our lives are giving out. I think this is our last. We are getting weak."

Firefighting resumes. Note the Newsboy without shoes.

  

Left: Oxygen Tanks for Mine Descent. -- Right: Volunteer Henry Smith of Peru, Illinois and R.Y. Williams, Director of Mine Experimental Rescue Station at Urbana, Illinois.

Chicago Fire Company, who rendered assistance at the mine.

The shaft was uncovered on Thursday, November 18, and fire fighting resumed, but those who went below returned to the surface only with the dead as mute evidence of the tragedy below. As the bodies were placed in tents to be identified by sobbing wives and children, the death toll mounted above 200. (It would finally total 259.)

One event brought relief to some and hope to many more. On November 20, rescue workers exploring a remote tunnel came upon a few enfeebled miners who led them to a small group of men who had managed to live through a week of deprivation and despair.

The group, totaling twenty-one men, was led by George Eddy of Streator, who later described how he had been on the surface when the fire started and had gone below as soon as he saw smoke. After he and several others had notified as many men as they could, they approached the mouth of the entry but found that they could not get out.

"We were blocked in on account of the black, damp smoke; we went back up the entry and tried to go out another road, and we found the black damp was stronger there than it was where we were, so we went back into the main entry again. Then we tried two or three times to get out on Saturday and Sunday, but we couldn't get out; every time we would try it, we were further away from the bottom, so we saw that we were not going to get to the cage because the black damp was pressing us in from both sections. We knew it would fill up the face and smother in there. We built a wall across the second west entry and the first west entry of dirt, and we were inside there for seven days."

Of the twenty-one rescued, one of whom later died, John Lorimer and George Stimac (or Stimez) were from Streator and Thomas White from Kangley. Another survivor, Antoniese (or Antenore), recalled: It was strange to see how the different races acted. The English sang, the French talked, the Italians prayed, and the Austrians and Lithuanians swept. Often, the English and the Italians would join in singing hymns. At last, John Lorimer, a Scotchman, was the leader — 'Abide With Me" was his favorite song. We all learned it.

Many of the others wrote notes to their families, and on the back of one was found this testament, signed by all twenty-one men: "We the undersigned do not blame anyone for the accident that happened to pen us in here, and we believe that everybody has done all in their power to relieve us."

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One of the 21 men who managed to survive eight dreadful days trapped, 315 feet below, in the second vain of the Cherry Mine, and who was rescued on Saturday, November 20th, was 45 year old Daniel Holofcak [born Dyonisius, son of Mary Hovanca and Petr Holovčak, of then Austro-Hungarian Empire]. Daniel was aka Dyons Holovcak, when he married his beloved Marija "Mary" Fedor, in 1888 by civil authority in Livingston County and then again in 1889, in a religious ceremony in Streator, Illinois. 

After being rescued, Daniel returned home to his loving wife and their nine children. Of which his eldest, was the newlywed Mrs. Mary Seman when he left for work with his son-in-law, [Andrew?], but had become a widow by the disaster, and left in mourning upon his return home, alone. 

Daniel, overwhelmed by what he had survived, spared from death at his age, while his 24 year old son-in-law had lost his, plus his supposed complications of Asthma, he also died at end of the following day. Having passed on Sunday, November 21, 1909 and was laid to rest in the Miners' Memorial Cemetery, in Cherry, Illinois. 

His Headstone inscribed with yet another version of his name, Deonis Holofcak... and an incorrect date of death. Presumably, his burial date, although the Slavic inscription states it as his death date. 

Comment by Nash Rodovid, August 28, 2022

Although the rescue attempts continued until November 25, no more survivors were found. Since the fire could not be extinguished with water, the mine was sealed with cement. This cover was removed on February 1, 1910, and body recovery resumed; the last body was brought up on July 7. The mine then resumed work and continued in operation for some ten years.

Men who did heroic work below at the time bodies were being taken from Cherry Mine.

From the beginning, Streator had been vitally concerned with the Cherry disaster. On the first evening, November 13, a special CI&S train left the town at 11:30, carrying 200 persons, nearly everyone with a friend or relative in the mine.

St. Paul Coal Company, Cherry Illinois Mine Managers.

Of the 259 dead, many had considered themselves Streator people and their bodies were moved back to the town for burial. The Free Press in November listed some forty-six as "Streator's dead," though this number included men from Heenanville and Kangley, and the list grew longer as more bodies were recovered. Because of the mobility of the mining population and the confused records (some Slavic or Lithuanian names may have as many as five variations), it can probably never be ascertained exactly how many of the Cherry dead were from Streator.

The Morgue where the victim's bodies were first laid.

The small shed first used to house the dead bodies was quickly replaced by a large tent set up as the Morgue.

Property found on the victims.

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Among the mementos on display at the presidential library: a pocket watch that belonged to one of the dead Cherry miners, 20-year-old Joseph Yerly of Spring Valley. The watch has been passed down in his family over the generations.

The watch owner’s body was burned beyond recognition. He was identifiable only because of his distinctive timepiece, which has an image of a church engraved on the back.

The watch appears to be in good condition, but its protective crystal is gone, and no one knows exactly why.

The glass could have been shattered somehow during the commotion of the fire, or the watch might have been damaged deliberately. As trapped miners waited in the inky darkness for their hoped-for rescue, they sometimes broke the crystal on their watches so they could keep track of time by feeling where the watch hands were.

—The State Journal-Register, November 5, 2009

What mattered was that there were 630 survivors — 160 widows and 470 fatherless children — who somehow had to be provided for. Private contributions started immediately nationwide, with Streator alone contributing almost $ 5,000 by the end of November. These donations from the United Mine Workers, Red Cross, and other organizations totaled over $444,000.

Funeral of Mr. Smith, a Cherry Mine victim.

The Cherry Cemetery on the community's southern edge filled quickly after the disaster.

Cherry Cemetery Some Mine Disaster Victim Headstones.

Meanwhile, official bodies had gone into action. These included the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad, which, for all practical purposes, owned the St. Paul Coal Company, the United Mine Workers, and the consuls and other representatives of foreign governments whose nationals were involved.

Miners houses in the background - running west from Cherry Mine. 1909

"Death Row." In this row of 30 cottages, only 4 men returned from the Mine disaster.

The "Widow's Row" on Steele Street looking north. You can see a "gap" seven houses down, which that lot was not built on because it was for a cross street, today's Cherry Avenue. Continue counting down seven more houses; where the eighth house should be is another cross street; Maple Avenue is there today. Circa 1910

Miners Homes, Cherry, Illinois. November 26, 1909

A group of children that was made orphans by the Cherry Mine disaster on November 13, 1909

Official records gave the following nationality breakdown of some of the men who lost their lives in the Cherry mine disaster:

	American - 11	Austrian - 28
	Belgian - 7	English - 8
	French - 12	German - 15
	Greek - 2	Irish - 3
	Italian - 73	Lithuanian - 21
	Polish - 8	Russian - 3
	Scotch - 21	Slavish - 36
	Swedish - 9	Welsh - 2

Cherry Mine Disaster, funeral procession, February 20, 1910

Funeral of Mine victims passing through Cherry, Illinois. Circa April 1910

Cherry Mine Disaster, the funeral procession of victims, Main Street, Ladd, Illinois - April 1910 

End of the funeral procession with nine hearses. Main Street, Ladd, Illinois - April 1910

Knights of Pythias funerals. Circa April 1910

Three caskets are ready for transport. Circa April 1910

Relatives view the remains of Davis at the Morgue. He had worked in the mine for only two days during the disaster. His body was taken overland to Peoria, Illinois.

Cherry School, Room 1, 22 children were made fatherless by the Mine disaster. Circa 1910.

The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad, a $400,000,000 corporation, was under no legal liability for the disaster beyond the resources of the coal company, which totaled about $350,000. If the coal company was sold, it would go bankrupt and yield less than its worth. 

Into this tangle of legal complications and aroused public opinion stepped John E. Williams of Streator, serving as vice-chairman of the Cherry Relief Commission. He volunteered his services as a disinterested mediator, spent many hours analyzing the situation, and conducted negotiations.

The Cherry Mine Office - 1909

President Albert J. Earling of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad announced: "We acknowledge a moral obligation," eventually, the company added $400,000 to the amount privately subscribed. The final sums allotted to surviving dependents were worked out based on the English Workmen's Compensation Act of 1906, which Williams had studied carefully. The official report of the disaster noted that "the credit for the settlement belongs almost exclusively to Mr. Williams."

Cherry Mine Disaster, Interior of the big tent, used as a morgue, February 20, 1910

81 bodies were taken out of the Cherry Mine and placed in a makeshift morgue on March 4, 1910

Recovered 5 months after the accident with $200.00 on his person on April 11, 1910

Out of the tragedy came new mine safety laws, more thorough inspections, and improved mining equipment. Due to the Cherry Mine Disaster, the Illinois legislature established stronger mine safety regulations the following year. In 1911, Illinois passed a separate law, which would later develop into the Illinois Workmen's Compensation Act.

The men who died will never be forgotten, especially those who gave their lives for others. And Streator had a particular cause for pride because of its own John E. Williams. His skill, humanity, and hard work significantly prevented the Cherry Mine disaster from creating bitterness and hatred among the thousands of people affected.

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AFTERWARD-AT-CHERRY

When the dead have all been recovered

and silently laid away.

When men have returned to their labor,

and the children have gone back to play.

When the last reporter has vanished

and the soldiers, too, have gone.

The long, long train of sleepers

has crept away into the dawn.

When they awake from their nightmare of horror

and realize all they have lost.

When they understand the full disaster,

and all of its frightful costs.

Then will come days of anguish

and nights when hearts will break.

When grief-dimmed eyes are sleepless

and tired, brains throb and ache.

Then they will need your pity,

and the help your purse will permit,

for then they will suffer a thousand times more

then the men who died in the pit.

(anonymous)                             

Bureau County Record, December 22, 1909

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Miners' Memorial Cemetery, Cherry, Illinois, 1909

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MEMORIALS

"To the memory of the miners who lost their lives in the Cherry Mine disaster November 13, 1909," Erected by the U.M.W. of a. District No.12, Illinois. November 13, 1911

A marker to those who lost their lives in the Cherry, Illinois Mine disaster was erected in 1986 by the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois State Historical Society. The marker is located in Cherry, in Village Park on the north side of town on the west side of IL 89, at the intersection of Main and North Streets.

The centennial commemoration of the Cherry Mine Disaster was held in Cherry on November 14, 2009. A new monument at the Cherry Village Hall was dedicated to the miners who lost their lives in the disaster.

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NAMES OF THOSE WHO PERISHED.

Adakosky, M	Agramanti, Foliani	Alexius, Joseph
Ambusautis, J	Amider, Alfio	Armelani, Charles
Armelani, Paul	Atalakis, Peter	Atlalakis, G
Bakalar, George	Barozzi, Antone	Bastia, Mike
Bauer, Milce	Bawman, Frank	Bawman, Lewis
Bayliff,Thomas	Benossif, J	Bernadini, Charles
Bertolioni, Tonzothe	Betot, John	Bolla, Antonio
Bolla, Peter	Bonesbeger, Joseph Ermakra	Bordesona, Joseph
Bosviel, Adolph	Boucher, Jerome	Brain, Oliver
Bredenci, Peter	Brown, John	Brown, Thomas
Bruno, Edward	Bruzis, John	Buckels, Richard
Budzom, Charles	Budzon, Joseph	Bundy, John
Burke, Joseph	Burslie, Clemento	Butilla, August
Cagoskey, John	Calletti, Giovanni	Camilli, Frank
Canov, Canivo	Casolari, Diminick	Casollari, Elizio
Casserio, John	Castoinelo, Chelsto	Cavaglini, Charles
Chebubar, Joseph	Ciocci,Peter	Ciochina, Costanbin
Cioci, Canical	Cipola, Mike	Clark, Robert
Cohard, Henry	Compasso, John	Conlon, Henry
Costi, Angelo	Costi, Lewis	Davis, John G.
Debulka, John	Deman, Anol	Demesey, Fred
Denalfi, Francisco	Detourney, Victor	Donaldson, John
Dovin, Andrew	DovIn, George	Dumont, Leopold
Dunko, John	Durand, Benjamin	Durdan, Andrew
Elario, Miestre	Elfi, Carlo	Elko, George
Eloses, Peter	Erickson, Charles	Erickson, Eric
Erminlano, Charles	Farlo, John	Fayen, Peter
Filippe, Ugo	Flood, John	Forgach, John
Formento, Dominick	Francisco, August	Francisco, John
Freebirg, Ole	Garabelda, John	Galletti, Giovanni
Galletti, John	Geckse, Frank	Giacobazzi, Antonio
Gialcolzza, Angone	Gibbs, Lewis	Governor, John
Grehaski, Andrew	Grilj, Met	Grumeth, Frank
Gugleilm, Peter	Guidarini, John	Gulick, Joseph
Gwaltyeri, Jalindy	Hadovski, Steve	Hainant, August
Halko, Mike	Halofcak, Dan	Harpka, Joseph
Havlick, George	Hertzel, John	Howard, Alfred
Howard, Samuel	Hudar, John	Hynds, William
Jagodzinski, Frank	James, Frank	Jamison, James
Janavizza, Joe	Kanz, John	Kenig, John
Klaeser, John	Klemiar, George	Klemiar, Richard
Klemiar, Thomas	Kliklunas, Dominik	Kometz, John
Korvonia, Antone	Korvonia, Joseph	Kovocivio, Frank
Krall, Alfred	Krall, Henry	Kroll, Alex S.
Kussner, Julius	Kutz, Paul	Lallie, Frank
Lanzotti, Batolomeo	Leadache, Frank	Leadache, James
Leadache, Jospeh	Leptack, John	Lewis, Issac
Leyshon, Charles	Lindic, Jernel	Lonzetti, Seicomo
Lonzotti, John	Love, David	Love, James
Love, John	Love, Morrison	Lukatchko, Andrew
Lurnas, Mike	Maceoha, John	Malinoski, Joe
Mani, Joseph	Marchiona, Archie	Marchiona, Frank
Marchioni, Gioanni	Masenetta, Anton	Matear (Mactear), William
Mayelemis, Frank	Mayersky, John	Mazak, John
Mazentto, John	McCandless, Robert	McCrudden, John
McCrudden, Peter	McFadden, Andrew	McGill, John Jr.
McLuckie, Andrew	McMullen, George	Meicora, Joseph
Mekles, Tonys	Merdior, Arthur	Mezzanatto, Antonio
Miller or Malner, Joseph	Miller or Malner, Lewis	Miller, Edward
Mills, Arthur	Mills, Edward	Mittle, John
Mohahan, James R.	Mokos, Joseph	Mumetich, Hasan
Norberg,  Alex	Norberg,  August	Olson, Charles P.
Ondurko, Matt	Ossek, Donaty	Ossek, Martin
Paco, Andrew	Palmiori, Albert	Papea, Charles
Pardetti, Giovanni	Passenger, Joseph	Pauline, Antona
Pavlick, George	Pavoloski, John	Pearson, Alex
Pearson, John	Podbregar, Peter	Perono, Dominick
Pete, Ben	Pomgener, John	Prich, Joseph
Prusitus, Perya	Prusitus, Peter	Pshak, John
Raven, Peter	Raviso, Joe	Repsel, Joseph
Repsel, Martin	Ricca, Cegu	Richards, Thomas
Rimkius, Joseph	Rittel, Frank	Riva, Joseph
Robeza, Joseph	Rodonis, Joseph	Rolland, Victor
Rossman, Robert	Ruggesie, Gailamyo	Ruygiesi, Frank
Sandeen, Olaf	Sarbelle, Julius	Sarginto, August
Scotland, William	Seepe (Unknown)	Seitz, Edward
Seitz, Paul	Semboa (Sereba), J.	Sestak, John
Settler, Harry	Shemia, John	Shermel, Antone
Siamon, Andrew	Smith, John W.	Sopko, Cantina
Speir, James	Stam, Antone	Stanchez, Frank
Stark, John	Staszeski, Tony	Steele, Peter
Stefenelli, Dominick	Sterns, James H.	Stewart, Harry
Sublich, Charles	Suffen, John	Suhe, John
Suhe, Mike	Sukitus, Joseph	Szarbrinski, John (John Smith)
Talioli, Eugene	Tamarri, Pasquale	Tamashanski, Joseph
Teszone, George	Timko, Andrew	Timko, Joseph, Jr.
Timko, Steve	Timko, Joseph, Sr.	Tonelli, Emilio
Tonner, John	Tosseth, Frank	Turchi, Nocenti
Urban, Leynaud	Waite, Charles	Walcainski, (Unknown)
Welkas, Anthony	White, George	Wyatt, William
Yacober, Frank	Yagoginski, Frank	Yannis, Peter
Yerly, Joseph	Yurcheck, Antone	Zacherria, Giatano
Zeikel, Pat	Zekuia, Joseph	Zliegley, Thomas

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission awarded silver medals to the families of the 13 heroes; Joseph Robeza, Jr. was one of the 13 who was burned in the fiery cage in the Cherry Mine Disaster. A letter dated October 7, 1999, from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission states that 620 silver medals were given by the Commission; metals now are of bronze only, and 8,321 have been presented to date. Signed by Walter F. Rukowski, Executive Director.

Excerpts from the book: Biography in Black, A History of Streator, Illinois, published in 1962.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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Suggested Reading:
Cherry, Illinois Mine Disaster Report, by Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics, published in 1910, in my Digital Research Library of Illinois History®

Former President Barack Obama Called for Jury Duty in Chicago, Illinois on Wednesday, November 8, 2017.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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Former President Barack Obama is still leading by example, showing his fellow citizens that when you get called for jury duty - no matter when or where you are - you show up. 

Mr. Obama returned to Chicago Wednesday morning, November 8, 2017, to report for jury duty at the Richard J. Daley Center at 50 West Washington Street, along with his Secret Service detail. Though he now lives in Washington D.C., the former President maintains a home in Chicago's Kenwood community (just north of Hyde Park) and gets summoned to serve Jury Duty for Cook County.

As you can see in this video, Mr. Obama went business casual in a white shirt and sports coat, shook hands, and cracked jokes with his fellow Chicagoans while a Secret Service and security team stood guard.

Barack Obama Reports for Jury Duty.

Cook County is apparently the same place where Oprah Winfrey and Mr. T served their public duty, so world-famous jurors are par for the course, but Mr. Obama is the highest-ranking former public official to be called for jury duty in Chicago history. Unlike other former Presidents, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, President Obama was selected for a jury panel.

According to CBS Chicago, Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans announced that Mr. Obama had been picked for a jury panel[1] that wasn't needed on Wednesday, and his entire panel was dismissed and got to go home that afternoon. 

Compiled and Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] The jury pool is first selected from among the community using a reasonably random method. A jury panel is then assigned to a courtroom where the prospective jurors for a pending trial are randomly selected to sit in the jury box. At this stage, they will be questioned in court by the judge.

Sans Souci Amusement Park, 6000 South Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. (1899-1913)

Sans Souci, opened in the summer of 1899, as one of Chicago's first amusement parks. It was located on the western side of Cottage Grove Avenue, just across 60th Street from the southern end of Washington Park. The park, though eventually eclipsed by larger competitors, nonetheless occupies an important place in the city's amusement history. With notable ties to the popular Midway Plaisance amusements of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, early origins as a German beer garden, and a close relationship to south side streetcar interests, Sans Souci's history helps explain much about the evolution of commercial amusements in Chicago during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Sans Souci had notable ties to the World's Columbian Exposition, which took place in 1893. The Exposition's most celebrated components were the industrial, commercial, and cultural exhibits of the "White City" in Jackson Park, so-called because of the white-colored, neo-classical buildings in which the exhibits were housed. The less-celebrated but much more profitable part of the Exposition was the "Midway Plaisance," a mile-long stretch of popular amusements between Jackson Park and Washington Park. These amusements included eateries, theaters, and a few unusual rides, including the original Ferris wheel and the Snow and Ice Railway. The financial success of the Midway demonstrated that money could be made entertaining the urban masses and encouraged the creation of similar places of amusement after the exposition closed.

One such place was Old Vienna, a combination roadside refreshment stand and German beer garden located on the southwest corner of Cottage Grove and 60th Street, kitty-corner from the western end of the old Midway. Opened in 1894 and modeled on a similar establishment that had operated on the Midway, Old Vienna won the patronage of many south siders, many of whom used the Cottage Grove cable and streetcar lines to access the park. 

On the Northwest corner of 61st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue there was a replica of an 1849 Mining Camp which opened in 1895, complete with a large Dance Pavilion and a beer garden named "Rest for the Weary."

Impressed with the extra traffic the resulted, the Chicago City Railway Company, operator of the Cottage Grove line, helped a group of investors acquire Old Vienna, the 1849 Mining Camp and surrounding properties in 1899 with the purpose of building an even larger and more profitable summer park.

Their new ten-acre park, dubbed Sans Souci after the famous palace of Prussian king Frederick the Great, was bounded by Cottage Grove and Langley Avenues on the east and west, and 60th and 61st Streets on the north and south.

Sans Souci Main Entrance at 60th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago.

Sans Souci was unlike anything Chicagoans had ever seen. The park's main entrance at 60th and Cottage Grove resembled the exterior of a German beer hall. The interior of the park featured large shade trees, a Japanese tea garden, ornamental shrubbery, electric fountains, and nighttime lighting.

Among the park's more popular attractions was the Casino, a large eatery where patrons could eat and drink al fresco while listening to bands and orchestras led by some of the period's most-liked musicians, including Guiseppe Creatore, Oreste Vessella, and Don Phillipini.

Over the years, the park's owners increased the variety and number of amusements in an attempt to attract patrons and keep the park profitable. Many of these changes were made in response to the opening of a rival amusement park, White City Amusement Park, less than a mile to the southwest of Sans Souci in 1905.

Following that summer of operation, the park underwent a $2 million facelift. Between 1906 and 1912, major additions to the park included a ballroom, a roller skating rink, a vaudeville theater, and two roller coasters, the Velvet Coaster and the Aerial Subway.

In February 1913, Sans Souci's owners, unable to retire a mortgage, sold the park to another group of investors. Searching for ways to return the prominent site to profitable uses, the new owners at first demolished many of the amusement park's rides and then turned over operation of its ballroom, skating rink, and Casino to outside concessionaires. This scaled-back Sans Souci reopened for the 1913 season but did little to regain lost patrons. Following the 1913 season, the park's owners announced plans to replace Sans Souci with a large summer concert garden designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and would name it "Midway Gardens."  Most of the former Sans Souci site is today occupied by housing developments built after World War II, following the demolition of Midway Gardens. 

Written by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. - copyright © 2016

Celebrating our ONE YEAR Anniversary with over 500 articles and over 1,150,000 readers since 11/11/2016.

A Brief History of the Old Chicago Park District Administration Building at Soldier Field. (1939-2001)

An 1895 state act allowed voters within newly annexed areas to create park districts. By 1930, 19 new park districts had been formed, resulting in 22 independent agencies operating simultaneously in the city. The smaller park districts often wanted to build fieldhouses, and many hired local architect Clarence Hatzfeld to design their buildings.

By 1934, all of Chicago's 22 park districts were hindered by the Great Depression. To reduce duplication of services, streamline operations, and gain access to funding through President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, voters approved the Park Consolidation Act of 1934, establishing the Chicago Park District (CPD). To create jobs, the newly established CPD hired architects, engineers, and landscape architects to produce record plans and drawings that provided a detailed understanding of the park buildings and landscapes as they appeared in the 1930s.

North facade; view from Field Museum rooftop - Chicago Park District Administration Building, 425 East McFetridge Drive, Chicago, Illinois.

The Chicago Park District Administration Building was built in 1939, at the end of the Great Depression, for the new Chicago Park District. The long, four-story limestone building abutted Soldier Field's northern edge. With its robust WPA modern design and European modernist inflections, the headquarters was unusual for Chicago because, during the Great Depression, development on that scale wasn't being built.

The Administration Building was demolished in 2001, and the agency took up residence as renters at 541 N. Fairbanks, Chicago, Illinois.

North facade detail, view to the south - Chicago Park District Administration Building, 425 East McFetridge Drive, Chicago, Illinois.

The south facade includes the Soldier Field parking lot and bleachers; the view to the north is the Chicago Park District Administration Building, 425 East McFetridge Drive, Chicago, Illinois.

South facade; view northwest from east bleachers - Chicago Park District Administration Building, 425 East McFetridge Drive, Chicago, Illinois.

Dining room, basement view to east - Chicago Park District Administration Building, 425 East McFetridge Drive, Chicago, Illinois.

"Secret Garden" exterior dining court view to the northeast - Chicago Park District Administration Building, 425 East McFetridge Drive, Chicago, Illinois.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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The Chicago Park District: history, background, organization, (PDF)

The Biography of Charles Tyson Yerkes, Jr. (1837-1905)

One of the men to have the most profound effect upon the early development of the Chicago ‘L’ was businessman, financier, and traction magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes. At one point, Yerkes owned more than half of the private ‘L’ companies (as well as ⅔ of the street railway system) and was responsible for much of the development of the system that can still be seen today. This colorful character was a shrewd businessman who was hailed by his allies and reviled by his critics.

Charles Tyson Yerkes, Jr.

Charles Tyson Yerkes, Jr. was born on June 25, 1837 to Quaker parents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Yerkes family came from Wales to America in 1682 and became Quakers by adoption on reaching the territory of William Penn. According to the custom, young Charles became a student at a Quaker school and finished his education at the Central High School of Philadelphia. Yerkes' formal education ended after high school when he got his first full-time job as a clerk in a grain commission broker's office at age 17. His employers were so pleased with his work that they presented the young Yerkes with $50 at the end of his first year, although the custom was to give no salary to apprentices.

At 22, he became a broker and underwriter of municipal securities. That year, he opened his own brokerage firm and joined the stock exchange. In 1862, he became involved in banking in Philadelphia, where he also began his interest in traction and street railways, and opened his own banking house at 20 South Third Street. He specialized in the sale of government, state, and city bonds and he soon was counted among the solid men of the City of Brotherly Love. When the national bond market collapsed after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Yerkes found himself unable to make due on his monthly payment to the City of Philadelphia's account with him. He lost his fortune and was ruined. The City of Philadelphia sent him to jail (officially for embezzlement of $400,000 of the city's money, unofficially for giving preference in his payments to someone other than the city), but he served only seven months of a thirty-three month term. While in prison for his crime, Yerkes confidently told a reporter, "I have made up my mind to keep my mental strength unimpaired, and think my chances for regaining my former position, financially, are as good as they ever were." He was pardoned by the governor at the request of some prominent Philadelphians. He soon returned to banking and quickly remade his fortune.

In 1873 Mr. Yerkes set resolutely at work to recoup his shattered fortune, and as early as 1875 became interested in the Continental Passenger Railway Company and saw the stock rise from $15 to $100 a share. In the year 1880 Mr. Yerkes paid his first visit to Chicago, and while there became interested in the Northwest Land Company, with headquarters in Fargo, Dakota. This may have had a connection with a reported stint of Yerkes posing as a colonel in the Dakota Territory for a period in 1880 or 1881.

In 1881, he divorced, remarried and relocated to Chicago. He quickly became involved in banking, financing, and traction again. When Yerkes arrived in Chicago, it was with the sole intention of opening a bank. As was popular with the powerful businessmen of the day, Yerkes assembled syndicates, an assembly of minimum risk companies with similar interests, for investors. These acquisitions were often highly leveraged and usually collapsed.

After Yerkes came to Chicago, it was not long before the street railways caught his eye in his search for profit-making ventures. The low price of the North Chicago City Railway's stock and its room for expansion and modernization drew Yerkes' eye and he and his business partners, Peter A. B. Widener and William C. Elkins, chose it as their first acquisition in 1886. Together, the men acquired a bare majority of stock, 2,505 shares at $600 each for a total investment of $1,503,000, and created a holding company on March 18th called the North Chicago Street Railroad Company. This holding company issued $1,500,000 in bonds, the proceeds of which paid for the original stock purchase. The North Chicago City Railway then leased all of its property to the North Chicago Street Railroad Company for the period of 999 years. Thus, the Yerkes syndicate had acquired a street railway that produced approximately $250,000 per year in dividends on about $1.2 million in revenues without investing a dime himself. The tactic worked so well, Yerkes would repeat it one year later on the West Side.

A shrewd, sometimes ruthless businessman, Yerkes used every device at his disposal to ward off competitors and maintain a monopoly in his respective sections of the city. Like many other businessmen of the period, he routinely resorted to bribery to obtain franchises from the city council. When bribery didn't work, he sometimes employed "professional vamps" to seduce, then blackmail, lawmakers. If this failed, he'd usually simply buy out his competitor and either dismantle them or integrate them into his syndicate. Interestingly, Yerkes was often not the majority stockholder in his companies. He often distributed stock amongst his business associates, his wife, and even his clerical staff so that he could maintain a low profile when taking over companies. But the politicians, press, and public knew who was really in charge.

Thus began a bitter distrust and dislike between Yerkes and the City of Chicago. Mayor Carter Harrison wrote of Yerkes, "Trained in the public utility school he saw a roseate future ahead for the man who would apply eastern methods of official corruption to the crude halfway measures so far practiced by the novices in Chicago's best financial circles." The feeling was mutual. Popular lore says that after Harrison's newspaper, the Times, published an unflattering article about Yerkes' street railways, the businessman strode unannounced into Harrison's office and said, "Carter, I always knew you were a scoundrel. Good day, sir," and left before Harrison could utter a word.

Two ‘EL’ companies threatened Yerkes' transportation monopoly on the West Side of the city: the Metropolitan West Side Elevated and the Lake Street Elevated Railroads. By 1894, when the Met was under construction, Yerkes decided action was required and moved to take over the financially crippled Lake Street Elevated. He theorized that with the Chicago West Division Railway Company and the Lake Street Elevated Railway Company under his control, he could successfully minimize the negative effects of the Met.

Keeping his identity a secret, Yerkes reached an agreement on July 3, 1894 with Frank L. Underwood on behalf of Underwood, Willard R. Green, Michael Cassius McDonald, and the Lake Street's other major stockholders for a majority interest in the Lake Street ‘L’. Yerkes received 50,000 shares of company stock at $18 a share. Two days later, Yerkes replaced the company's officers with his own men, including outing President John A. Roche with his own man, Delancey H. Louderback, who was also active in the management of some of Yerkes' street railways. Yerkes immediately infused some badly needed capital into the cash-poor company.

It was about this time that Yerkes' public image began a rapid decline. Yerkes' extravagant lifestyle did little to stifle his image as a robber baron as well. He furnished his $1.5 million mansion on New York City's Fifth Avenue with a marble staircase, a conservatory complete with flitting birds, and a gallery full of European art treasures, and later built a second mansion a few blocks away for his favorite mistress.

A young astronomer gave Yerkes a chance to better his image. Twenty-four-year-old George Ellery Hale proposed an observatory adequately equipped to study the sun. When Hale accepted a professorship at the University of Chicago in 1892, it was with one costly condition: He required the University to build a new observatory costing not less than $250,000.

On October 4, 1892, U of C President Harper and Professor Hale visited Yerkes in his office at 444 North Clark Street. Harper and Hale shrewdly appealed to Yerkes' considerable ego in order to obtain his financial support for their project. This would not be just any telescope, the scholars argued, it would be the world's largest telescope. For a man who always desired the biggest and best of everything, this proposal naturally held allure. But when Yerkes learned the full cost of the project, Yerkes hesitated. While certainly willing to finance a telescope, he had never planned on bankrolling a complete observatory building. Unfortunately for the tycoon, Hale leaked to the press a greatly exaggerated account of Yerkes' generosity, and on October 12 news stories trumpeted the "princely donation."

The Daily Inter Ocean outdid the other newspapers in its praise of Yerkes and Sidney Kent, who funded a chemistry lab for the University. "What Lorenzo the Magnificent did for art in Florence, Kent and Yerkes, each in his own way, are doing for science in Chicago," the Inter Ocean extolled.

The Chicago Times, owned by ex-Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr., refused to add to the cheers. "The astronomical beneficence of Mr. Yerkes does not excuse his street railway's shortcomings any more than the educational liberality of Mr. Rockefeller justifies the methods of the Standard Oil Company. It begins to look as if President Harper's success as a money raiser was due to his having shrewdly represented the Chicago University to divers men of wealth as a sort of conscience fund."

By 1894, building plans were complete and the telescope's mounting already assembled, yet Yerkes was refusing to spend any more money on the project. On October 21, 1897, the Yerkes Observatory was officially dedicated. The observatory's namesake delivered the address presenting the observatory to the University of Chicago. His speech received a thunderous ovation.

Though the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition closed on November 1, 1893, the Ferris Wheel stood idle on the Midway until April 29, 1894. It took 86 days and cost $14,833 (today $399,698.00) to dismantle it. Then 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," at 1288 North Clark Street. It was only 20 minutes from the city's principal hotels and railway stations. The Directors sold bonds hoping to landscape the grounds, build a restaurant, a beer garden, a band shell, a Vaudeville theater, and paint the Wheel and Cars. Ferris' partner in the Ferris Wheel Park plan was Charles Tyson Yerkes, Jr. (which his involvement with the Park is debatable). The lack of support of 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, Mr. Yerkes. For years, Mr. Yerkes tried to circumvent Lincoln Park property owners by trying, through city government, to acquire property for his company without due process.

About the same time, Yerkes was contemplating a solution to a problem facing all three of Chicago's elevated companies: the lack of a true downtown terminal. The solution was a structure that today is one of Chicago's most renowned structures and one of the most defining elements of its central business district: the Loop.

The Cities and Villages Act of 1872 required consent signatures from the majority of property owners along each mile of a street where an elevated railroad planned to build. Since many downtown streets were already lined with upscale stores, the ‘L’ companies found the fear of the looming shadows and lowered property values the hulking elevated structure might bring hard to overcome. It took the political power of Charles Tyson Yerkes to overcome these obstacles and begin construction.

Though the exact alignment of the Loop was debated and changed several times, the use of Lake Street as the north leg was never seriously questioned. This suited the Yerkes' Lake Street Elevated just fine, making their connection to the Loop all the more simple. By mid-1894, all the necessary frontage consent signatures along Lake Street to Wabash Avenue had been secured. On December 28, 1894, LeGrand W, Pierce, president of the Yerkes-backed Union Elevated Railroad (which Yerkes had chartered in November of 1894), and Lake Street Elevated president Delancey H. Louderback reached an agreement. The Union Elevated funded the cost of five of the seven block north leg from Market to Wabash, but ownership would stay with the Lake Street to pacify some property owners who still feared the presence of a Union Loop.

By late summer 1895, the Lake Street extension was constructed to Wabash Avenue with stations at Fifth Avenue (later called Wells Street), Clark Street, and State Street. The Lake Street Elevated began service over this extension September 22, 1895. A franchise was finally granted for the east leg of the Loop along Wabash on October 14, 1895. Yerkes often used a great deal of political and corporate maneuvering to gain his franchises and one technique often employed was to obtain the franchise in the name of another company. The Wabash leg of the Loop is unique in that it was the only section whose franchise was awarded in the name of the Union Elevated Railroad Company itself. The structure between Adams and Lake was placed in service November 8, 1896.

Permission for the west leg was perhaps one of the easiest to obtain. Although utilizing Market Street and extending the Market stub track of the Lake Street Elevated was considered, Yerkes instead decided to "kill two bird with one stone." He used a similar tactic here as he had for the north leg: he obtained the franchise in the name of his planned, but as-yet-unbuilt Northwestern Elevated Railroad. Frontage signatures were obtained in the name of the Northwestern from Michigan (now Hubbard) Street to Harrison Street. On June 24, 1895, the city council granted the Northwestern a 50-year franchise, after which the company reassigned the rights south of Lake Street to the Union Elevated. Construction commenced August 31, 1895.

By the end of 1895, the only section of the Union Loop without a franchise was its southern leg. First considered was Harrison Street, but in late October, the Metropolitan West Side Elevated declared that this alignment was unacceptable, as it would subject its riders to a lengthy delay and detour. Yerkes abandoned his Harrison Street plans and changed the alignment to Van Buren Street, but this presented a new problem: Levi Z. Leiter, owner of much Loop property along Van Buren, strenuously objected. Thus began a bitter battle of words between Yerkes and Leiter in the newspapers and an apparent stalemate between the powerful businessman and the incensed property owner.

Uninterested in compromise, Yerkes instead employed a tactic he'd used twice before in the Loop: obtaining the franchise in the name of another company. But instead of using an existing ‘L’ company as before, he simply created a new one, the Union Consolidated Elevated Railroad. Incorporated in March 1896, its purpose was not only to build the gap between Wabash and Wells, but also the connection to the Metropolitan West Side Elevated. Unable to sway the opinion of Leiter and the fellow property owners he'd already convinced to consent to the elevated's construction, Yerkes employed perhaps one of his most crafty and duplicitous schemes. He announced that he'd build the Van Buren leg from Wabash to Halsted Street, a distance of one mile. The western half of this included mostly warehouses and industry who were at best excited and at least indifferent to the presence of the elevated. Their consent signatures coupled with those already obtained east of Market Street were all Yerkes needed to proceed. Of course, Yerkes never intended to actually build the structure west of Market. Construction east of Wells began in late 1896.

Although the Van Buren leg was built and done with, there were a lot of bad feelings about Yerkes' roundabout methods of obtaining the franchise. After the Loop began operations, the city demanded forfeit from Yerkes over the alleged non-fulfillment of his franchise. At the ceremony marking the official opening of the Northwestern Elevated, Yerkes responded, "Even the City of Chicago has not the right to rob people, and the public does not want to see the money with which the city is run obtained by dishonest methods." Yerkes' relationship with the city was deteriorating fast.

The Loop as a whole was activated October 3, 1897, first served by the Lake Street Elevated. The Metropolitan followed in October 11, with the South Side trailing on October 18th.

The last of the major ‘L’ companies to be created was the Northwestern Elevated. Incorporated on October 25, 1893 by Edward Russell, Walter Anthony, Harold Sturges, and respected transportation consultant Bion Arnold, not among the incorporators was its chief financial backer: Yerkes. The Northwestern was actually Yerkes' first foray into the world of Chicago elevateds, incorporated more than eight months before he gained control of the Lake Street Elevated. His motivations for building the line were typically business-minded: to protect his North Side street railway system and his transportation monopoly in that section of the city.

The Northwestern's charter allowed the line to extend from downtown to the Lake-Cook County border - a distance of 18.5 miles - but in all likelihood Yerkes had no intention of building beyond the Chicago city limits. In January 1894, the city granted the Northwestern a 50-year franchise to built from downtown to Wilson Avenue (later extended to Howard Street), but it included some very stiff financial penalties if the line was not completed to Wilson within three years (and to Howard within ten). In early 1894, the company surveyed its route and construction commenced in January 1896. The Yerkes-back Columbia Construction Company was confident that the line would be completed within a year. How wrong they were.

Yerkes and his company met with a series of setbacks. The initial construction timetable had been overly optimistic and the company successfully lobbied for an extension until December 31, 1897. No sooner was this secured than a national economic depression caused construction to halt when Yerkes could not find buyers for nearly $1 million worth of Columbia stock. Always the cunning businessman, Yerkes came up with a solution: he offered stock purchasers a 40% bonus in Union Elevated Railroad stock. But by late November 1897, although the structure reached from Dayton to Buena, work was again halted due to financial troubles and there was no hope in meeting the new deadline. The alderman granted another extension, this time until January 1, 1899.

But the financial outlook was still bleak. Columbia's stockholders were ready to quit, but Yerkes and the Northwestern decided to issue $4 million of its own bonds and seek a loan to complete the project. Work crews were again back at work, but the deadline was again impossible to meet. Hat in hand, the Northwestern asked for yet another extension. The aldermen agreed, this time pushing the date to December 31, 1899.

As the deadline drew nearer, extra crews were added to finish the work. By Christmas Day 1899, the entire structure was complete from downtown to Montrose, but only one track and three stations were ready for operation. On the evening of December 29th, crews built a ramps from the elevated at Montrose to the ground at Wilson and erected a small temporary station to meet the franchise requirements. The next day, the ceremonial first train was operated from Wrightwood station to the Loop and back. After this, the company decided to operate one round trip a day to keep their franchise until construction was complete.

The city's public works commissioner, L.H. McGann, was unamused and declared the line unsafe (portions of the structure lacked the specified number of rivets) and incomplete and ordered operations suspended immediately. Yerkes had other ideas. He ordered the trains to operate anyway and the next day at Wrightwood station, four policemen arrested the train's motorman. Luckily, company officer Frank Hedley was aboard and he took the controls, taking the train to the Loop. Upon reaching Tower 18, he found 50 policemen lined up across the tracks, blocking the entrance to the Loop. But instead of stopping, Hedley sped up as the policemen scattered to avoid the train. The lawmen laid timbers across the Northwestern's access to the Loop and upon completing the circuit, Hedley was forced to bring his train into the Lake Street Elevated's Market Street Terminal. On January 3, 1900, the alderman granted another extension until May 31, 1900, but made it clear that there would be no more time extensions.

On May 31, 1900, the Northwestern Elevated began operations, and its chief visionary was present to see his project come to fruition. But he would not remain in Chicago for long.

Yerkes, in his own words, liked to "buy up old junk, fix it up a little, and unload it upon other fellows." Although this might be somewhat of an exaggeration - his railways were usually better off after he'd managed them than before - but certainly his robber baron philosophies had not earned him many allies in the city government or in the press. In 1899, Yerkes had attempted to secure a no-cost extension to one of his street railway lines for a period of one hundred years. Yerkes was accused of handing out over a million dollars in bribes to secure the passage of his franchise and during the City Council meeting a mob surrounded City Hall, demanding that Yerkes be repudiated. If Yerkes did bribe the aldermen, it was to no avail; the proposal was voted down. Politically and socially ostracized for his "rapacity," Yerkes left Chicago in 1900.

He left for New York City, selling the bulk of his transit holdings and invested in the development and electrification of the London tubes (subways). He headed the syndicate that built the Metropolitan subway, (no connection to the Metropolitan ‘EL’), and helped develop and extend the Bakerloo, Northern and Piccadilly Lines.

His main philanthropy was the observatory given to the University of Chicago in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He also donated an electric fountain to Lincoln Park, at a cost of $100,000. Although there have been few biographies on the life of Charles Yerkes, his life is perhaps best immortalized in works of fiction: Theodore Dreiser's "Cowperwood trilogy" - The Financier (1912), The Titan (1914), and The Stoic (1947) - was based on the life of Yerkes.

His reputation was at least somewhat rehabilitated near the end of his life, such that of Yerkes, his most ardent detractor, Mayor Carter Harrison, Jr., said,

"He was really a gallant though perverted soul that looked danger in the face unflinchingly. He was the stuff great war heroes are made of; with the right moral fiber he would have been a truly superb character."

Charles Tyson Yerkes, Jr. died in New York City on December 29, 1905, at the age of 68. His estate was valued at $4 million ($108,363,656 in 2017). His will left $100,000 to the observatory in Willams Bay, provided that it was officially designated the Yerkes Observatory. It seems that Yerkes' keen business sense was not lost on his spouse. His widow, Mary Adelaide, who was willed ⅓ of his estate, disputed a decision by the executor of his will to sell $4.5 million in Chicago City Railways bonds discounted to 30¢ on the dollar. The case dragged on until her death in 1911.

By Chicago ‘L’ Organization.

Edited by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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Sources:

1) Charles Tyson Yerkes, 1837-1905, by the Street Railway Review. Scientific American, January 28, 1893, p. 54.
2) Brian J. Cudahy, Destination Loop, Brattleboro, VR: The Stephan Greene Press, 1982.

3) Bruce Moffat, The ‘L’: The Development of Chicago's Rapid Transit System, 1888-1932 (CERA Bulletin 131), Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association, 1995.

4) University of Chicago Yerkes Observatory web site.

5) David M. Young, Chicago Transit: An Illustrated History, DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1998.

Abraham Lincoln Watermelon Monument in Lincoln, Illinois. Commemorating the Town's Official Christening in 1853.

On August 27, 1853, Mr. Abraham Lincoln arrived from Springfield and led a ceremony by the railroad tracks to mark the founding of the new town, Lincoln. The successful lawyer paid a farmer to bring a wagonload of watermelons, which were handed out to the celebrants. Lincoln cut into one of the melons and "christened" the railroad trackside with watermelon juice.

The Lincoln, Illinois Amtrak station is a small brick shelter constructed near the former Chicago and Alton Railroad depot that also served the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The historic depot was renovated for commercial use and was long occupied by a restaurant. The Amtrak shelter and depot are located at the center of Lincoln, Illinois, at 101 North Chicago Street.

The spot where this the celebration took place honors this ceremony with a watermelon monument made of steel which stands on the south lawn of the depot.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Chicago Jitney Cab War of 1950.

In the earliest days of Chicago's public transportation history, the city's buses held a rather charming distinction. They were affectionately called "Jitneys or Jits" for short, the slang term for a nickel. It wasn't until 1920 that the cost of a single bus ride increased from 5¢ to 10¢.

On August 22, 1950, Chicago Mayor Martin Kennelly ordered a crackdown on Jitney cabs operating on South Park Way (Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) and other South Side streets. The Jitney cabs carried groups of up to six passengers at a time, charging 15¢ per Person. Though this was more expensive than the current CTA fare of 12¢, it was significantly less than the meter rate on licensed cabs.

One of the very first Chicago City Buses was called a "Jitney."

The Park District held public hearings on how to deal with this problem. The Jitneys were breaking the law. The mayor warned that drivers operating without a taxi license would be arrested.

Kennelly's warnings had little effect. The Jitneys kept running. Kennelly alienated the powerful South Side congressman, William L. Dawson. Dawson and most of his constituents were African American. Since many white cab drivers wouldn't serve black passengers in 1950, the local community relied on the Jitney cabs.

A private citizen's family car is used as a Jitney cab.
FYI: Those are not bullet holes in the rear passenger door.

Kennelly was succeeded by a more politically astute mayor, Richard J. Daley. When a reporter asked him if he would do anything about the Jitneys, Daley said, "They perform a public service." And that was that. 

DEFINITION OF A "JITNEY" CAB

• Unlicensed taxi cabs that service high-crime and overcrowded areas where licensed cabs just won't go.

• A small bus or large car following a regular public transportation route along which it picks up and discharges passengers. In Chicago, Jitney's initially charged each passenger 5¢.

COMPARISON 

A Jitney cab is the great, great, grandfather of Uber, Lyft, and Curb. These services have become legal services for door-to-door ride services at a discounted cost of taxicabs. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Calamity Destroyed all the Bridges over the Chicago River.

A year after the Illinois and Michigan Canal joined the Chicago River to the Illinois River in 1848, an event occurred that must have caused some questioning of the wisdom of that engineering feat.

The 1849 Chicago River Flood - A Daguerreotype Photograph.

It had been a snowy winter, followed by a rapid thaw and three days of rain. The interior of Illinois was waterlogged, and the rivers and streams ran over their banks. On March 12, 1849, at about 10:00 o'clock in the morning, a massive ice dam on the south branch of the Chicago River broke free with devastating results.

There were at least ninety vessels of various sizes on the river, and most were torn from their moorings, hurled them against bridges, and decimated many of the wharves.

As the mass of ice, water, and entangled ships was swept along, a small boy was crushed to death at the Randolph Street bridge. A little girl meets her death as a ship's mast falls into a group of onlookers. A number of men are reported lost upon canal boats that have been sunk.

From the History of Chicago, by Alfred Theodore Andreas:
"It was then that some bold fellows, armed with axes, sprang upon the vessels thus jammed together, and in danger of destruction. "Among the foremost and most fearless were: R. C. Bristol, of the forwarding house of Bristol & Porter; Alvin Calhoun, a builder, brother to John Calhoun, founder of the Chicago Democrat newspaper, and father of Mrs. Joseph K. C. Forrest; Cyrus P. Bradley, subsequently Sheriff and Chief of Police, and Darius Knights, still an employee of the city. These gentlemen, at the risk of their lives, succeeded in detaching the vessels at the eastern end of the gorge, one by one, from the wreck, until finally some ten or twelve large ships, relieved from their dangerous positions, floated out into the lake, their preservers proudly standing on their decks and returning, with salutes, the cheers of the crowd onshore. Once in the lake, the vessels were secured, in some cases by dropping the anchors, and in others by being brought up at the piers by the aid of hawsers (a thick rope or cable for mooring or towing a ship."

Late in the afternoon, a man was spotted waving a handkerchief from a canal boat a few miles offshore, but no undamaged boats were sent to his rescue. Forty vessels were completely wrecked, and dozens were carried into the lake as debris. The lock at Bridgeport[1] was totally destroyed, the Madison, Randolph, and Wells Street bridges were swept away, resulting in no bridges spanning the Chicago River.

The loss by the flood was estimated at:

• Damage to the city $15,000
• To vessels $58,000
• To canal boats $30,000
• Wharves $5,000

Totaling a whopping $108,000 ($3,295,000 today) in damages. The figures given are lower than what the actual loss really was. 

The city went to work with a will to repair the great damage. In the meantime, the river was crossed by several ferries. Besides the boat at Randolph Street, a canal boat lay across the river, upon which people were allowed to cross on payment of 1¢ each. The ferry at the Lake House Hotel fronting Pine, Kinzie, and Rush Streets, the safest and the most pleasant on the river, was free. The schooner at Clark Street charged a 1¢ fare. Mr. Scranton’s old ferry was running at State Street. The fare was the same as the others were charging. 

Other temporary appliances were brought into use to bridge over the inconveniences of the next few months. These ferries were generally overcrowded with passengers who, in their eagerness to cross the Chicago river, sometimes rushed aboard recklessly, and it is a wonder that fatal results did not follow.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] The first bridge built in Bridgeport was a small bridge (unknown type) over the South Fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River, which may have been for the crossing of a road that had come before Archer Road was built. When the canal opened in 1848, the first bridge over the canal (at the lock) was washed away by the Flood of 1849 but was rebuilt. The street leading to the lock site bridge was called Post street, eventually, which connected to Lisle Street (also known as Reuben Street) -- and later renamed Ashland Avenue.