Chicagoland: How did the name originate?

As the editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune for most of the first half of the 20th century, Colonel Robert Rutherford McCormick usually gets credit for coining the term "Chicagoland."

Colonel Robert Rutherford McCormick (1880-1955), was named the President of the Chicago Tribune Company in 1911, and he held this position until his death in 1955. 

The first use of the term "CHICAGOLAND" was in the McHenry Plaindealer Newspaper on April 23, 1849, in an article about new railroad lines coming into Chicago. WGN 720 AM, first used "CHICAGOLAND" as a name of a radio show playing from 8:30pm to 9pm in September of 1928.

In McCormick's time, it referred to the city and its grain, timber, and livestock hinterlands covering parts of five states (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa), all of which were served by rail delivery of the colonel's newspaper. Later in the century, it came to mean a smaller, denser area of city and suburbs in three states stretching from northern Indiana to southern Wisconsin.

Blanchard's map of Chicago and Suburbs. (1910)
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Chicagoland is a term that carries several common misconceptions. It is believed by many people that Chicagoland, or more formally the "Chicago Metropolitan Area" is restricted to only the areas within the Illinois state boundaries. However, due to the fact that a metro area is based on cultural and employment patterns and similarities, this is simply not true.

Because Chicago is such a large city on its own, it boasts a much wider metro area than most others in the country, save for New York and Los Angeles. Dating back to 1950, when statistical analysis for metro areas emerged, Chicagoland included the eight collared counties of Cook, DuPage, Will, Lake, McHenry, Kane, Kendall, and Grundy as well as Lake County in Indiana which to many a Chicagoan's surprise physically borders the city. Over the years, due to Chicago's expansion, the definition has also widened to include four more Indiana counties (Porter, LaPorte, Newton, and Jasper) as well as Kenosha County in Wisconsin.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Newlyweds Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln rented a small room at the Globe Tavern in Springfield, Illinois in 1842.

On Friday night, November 4, 1842, Abraham Lincoln and his bride Mary Todd, left the festivities following their wedding at the Ninian W. Edwards home and took up residence in Springfield's Globe Tavern at 315 East Adams Street. The Lincoln's rented a second-floor room which was only 8x14 feet, paying $4 a week ($110 today) for room and board (in all probability he meant $4 each for himself and his wife). 

The Globe Tavern was run by Sarah Beck. It was a typical two-story Springfield wood boardinghouse. The Lincoln's occupied a room on the second floor which was only 8x14 feet. Their first child, Robert Todd Lincoln, was delivered at the Globe Tavern on August 1, 1843, and on May 2, 1844, when they moved to a small house on Fourth Street in Springfield, Illinois.

The Globe Tavern, photo by S.M. Fassett 1865. Note the length of the building showing the Bennett-Spottswood and the Allen additions from 1839.

The Globe Tavern in 1886 shows only the Globe Tavern after the Bennett-Spottswood and the Allen additions were demolished.

The building was significantly larger (see photograph above) when the Lincolns lived there. The Globe was demolished in the 1890s.

Springfield Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution placed a marker at the site of the Globe Tavern, the first home of Abraham and Mary Lincoln (from November 4, 1842, to May 2, 1844,) and the birthplace of their first child Robert. The marker, located in the 300 Block of East Adams, Springfield, Illinois, was rededicated by the Historic Sites Commission on April 15, 1987.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.