The History of the Screw Club in Lake View, Chicago, and the Honorable William Boldenweck.

The Screw Club was a republican political machine that was brought into existence to elect William Boldenweck Mayor of the City of Lake View. Boldenweck was the last Supervisor of Cook County's Lake View Township (1857-1887) and was then elected as the first and only Mayor of the City of Lake View from 1887 to 1889. The Lake View Screw Club had initiated the movement against Chicago annexation, which happened on June 29, 1889. 

FOR VISUAL PURPOSES ONLY

Boldenweck was born in Gottingen, Germany on August 9, 1852. The family moved to Chicago in 1854. During that year both, his father and mother died of cholera [1], a disease then raging throughout America. William attended school at a building, located at that time on Madison Street, between State and Dearborn Streets. 

William Boldenweck attended the Dyrenfurth Commercial College, Chicago's first business school founded in 1857 by Julius Dyrenfurth. Dyrenfurth Commercial College was Chicago's first business school. Julius was known as the "Father of Music in Chicago." He was a violinist and the Director of Chicago's first orchestra, the Philharmonic Society in 1850. (Surname is also spelled Dyhrenfurth and Dyrenforth.) 

NOTE: Harold (Son of Julius) and Emily (Mendroth) Dyrenfurth had three children, a son, and daughters, but the son died of diphtheria in childhood, and the two girls, 14-year-old Ruth and 19-year-old Helen lost their lives in the Iroquois Theatre Fire on December 30,1903. Ruth and Helen were accompanied to the theatre by the family's Swedish nanny, 24-year-old Alma Josephina Erland. The evening of the Iroquois fire Ruth and Helen's cousin, 31-year-old Arthur Dyrenfurth, found Ruth's body at Rolston's funeral home and took her to her parent's home.  A police officer, Albert F. Sinsrott, found Helen's body on a stairwell outside the auditorium, the second of only two victim identifications known to have been made at the theater. Ruth and Helen are buried in a family plot at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago. 

After graduating from Dyrenfurth Commercial College, Boldenweck worked at different trades until 1871 when he joined his brother in the cut-stone and contracting business as a bookkeeper. In 1875, Mr. Boldenweck purchased the business from his brother and associated himself with Mr. P. Heine, under the firm name of Boldenweck & Henne, and ran the contracting business with him until 1883, when Boldenweck partnered with Mr. Ernest Haldeman forming the firm of Boldenweck & Heldmaier. 

William Boldenweck

Boldenweck resided in Cook County's Lake View Township since July 1876. He was a member of the Lake Shore Club, Knights of Honor, Lake View Singing Society, and the Screw Club. He married Miss Adelheid G. Samme on March 25, 1873, daughter of Frederick Samme who settled in Chicago in 1847.

Boldenweck retired in 1887. He ran for and was elected to the office of Supervisor of Lake View, then under a village organization. He was next elected the first Mayor of the city of Lake View on the Republican ticket. Boldenweck was re-elected Mayor until that suburb was annexed by the city of Chicago in 1889.

The last mention in the Chicago Tribune of the Screw Club was on February 3, 1889, ordering new uniforms to attend the inauguration of President-elect Benjamin Harrison.

In 1891, Mr. Boldenweck was appointed a member of the Board of Education by Mayor Hempstead Washburne (1891-1893), for a term of four years.

In 1900, the Sanitary District of Chicago, then headed by William Boldenweck, completely reversed the flow of the main stem and South Branch of the Chicago River using a series of canal locks, increasing the river's flow from Lake Michigan and causing it to empty into the newly completed Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. 

On July 4, 2022, I received a comment from Christa Selig:

I am William Boldenweck's Great-grandniece. In my possession are a number of William's personal papers, including correspondence to my great-grandmother, the wife of his nephew. He provided for my widowed great-grandmother and her daughter in his will.

I also have a photograph of him with his siblings one month after they were orphaned by the cholera epidemic of 1854.

One month after they arrived in the U.S., William's parents died within a week of each other when he was not yet three years old, their bodies deposited in a mass grave in what is now Lincoln Park near what is now the Chicago History Museum (Chicago Historical Society), and many of his personal artifacts are in their possession.

 

One item of interest is the shovel William used to break ground to reverse the Chicago River, which [Christa Selig] believes killed both of his parents, all three of his children, and two of his sisters in 1889, the same year that Lake View was annexed by the city of Chicago.

I deeply appreciate this respectful and, to my knowledge, accurate post, as I appreciate history, too. William Boldenweck was a very real person and is very real to me. 

                                                                                                                  —Christa Selig 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

---

[1] Cholera was a disease of conquest in Chicago, making its first known appearance in 1832 with Winfield Scott’s troops who had been sent to subdue Black Hawk and his allies. This swift-moving disease could kill within hours of contraction. Victims felt sudden cramps, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, and often death due to dehydration.

While cholera was present in Chicago across its history, it was particularly virulent every summer between 1848 and 1855. By then, Chicagoans purchased their water from private vendors who delivered casks of Lake Michigan water or drew water directly from area waterways. While it was clear that cholera was highly contagious and traveled easily with humans, it was not until 1849 that a London physician made a direct connection between a contaminated water source and the disease. In response, Chicagoans organized the Chicago City Hydraulic Company in 1851 to provide a safe drinking supply. With ongoing improvements to water provisions, cholera’s threat lessened but did not disappear. One reason was that as Chicago established a ready reliable water supply system, wastewater overwhelmed the region. Not until the 1880s, when residents were required to connect to an expanding sewerage system, did cholera firmly recede. But cholera was under control in Chicago before the disease-causing bacteria were identified in 1883 and before the development of antibiotics that could cure it. Prevention saved the day.

The Amazing History of The Toy Tinkers Company, the Makers of Tinkertoys, in Evanston, Illinois.

Tinkertoys were one of many building/construction-type toys invented in the early 1900s. 

The Meccano-Erector set was developed by Frank Hornby of Liverpool, United Kingdom, in 1898. (National Toy Hall of Fame 1998)

Tinkertoys' first product design was released in 1914 by Charles H. Pajeau, a stonemason. He got the idea for the toy, presented the idea to Robert Pettit, a trader with the Chicago Board of Trade, on a commuter train in Chicago, and started the Toy Tinker Company in Evanston, Illinois, to manufacture them. The toys were developed to help children develop fine motor skills, improve math skills, boost creativity and imagination, and enhance problem-solving skills through play. (National Toy Hall of Fame 1998)

And Lincoln Logs, which was invented in Chicago in 1916 by John Lloyd Wright, the son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. (National Toy Hall of Fame 1999)

The manufacturing location for The Toy Tinkers, Inc., was a 65,000 square-foot four-story plant at 2012 Ridge Avenue in Evanston, Illinois.

2012 Ridge Avenue in Evanston, Illinois.

Pajeau and Pettit had presented the toys at the 1914 American Toy Fair in New York City, but no one was interested. On the way back to the hotel, Pajeau convinced a few toys stores to let him set up elaborate displays for a hefty commission, but the toy sets were slow to take off.

The business partners then decided to try a new marketing tactic when they returned home to Chicago. Around Christmas time, they set up displays in a select few Chicago area toy stores. This time they hired midgets, whom they dressed as elves, to sit in the store windows and play with the toys. This publicity stunt made all the difference. Within a year, Tinker Toys had produced over a million sets.

The cornerstone of the Tinkertoy set is a wooden spool roughly two inches in diameter, with holes drilled every 45° around the perimeter and one through the center. Unlike the center, the perimeter holes do not go all the way through. With the differing-length sticks, the set was intended to be based on the Pythagorean progressive right triangle. [ The "Pythagoras' Theorem" and can be written in one short equation: a² + b² = c² ] 

Flying Tinker (1918-1921) 'Pilot of the Sky' propeller toy.
"The outdoor toy, for girl or boy."

Advertising for the Flying Tinker pledged "Flying Tinker teaches the first principles of aviation, while the operator remains safely on the ground." Additional flying yellow propellers could be purchased from the company at a price of six blades for 12¢.

The sets were introduced to the public through displays in and around Chicago, which included the popular model Ferris wheels. 

One of Tinkertoy's distinctive features is the toy's packaging. The original toys were made from wood that was left in its natural state. In 1919, the company added an electric motor to the set. 

In the early 1920s, Toy Tinkers started branching out into other toy designs, including pull toys. 

This is an original Wood Horse & Rider Pull Toy, officially known as the "Pony Tinker," manufactured by The Toy Tinkers, Inc. of Evanston, Illinois, from 1924 into the early '30s. As it is pulled, the rider bounces up and down to simulate actual horse riding. The head and hat can be turned in any direction.
NOTE: the above pullcord length had been cropped to highlight the red wood ball grip-handle.

To assist buyers in differentiating between the various offerings, sets were placed in different size mailing tubes labeled with a number (e.g., 116, 136) and a name (e.g., major, prep, big boy, junior, grad).

Tinkertoy Wonder Builder Set, 1929

A colorful "how-to" instruction guide accompanied each set. 

CLICK FOR A FULL-SIZE VIEW

In the 1950s, color was added, and the wooden sticks appeared in red, green, blue, and peach.

Tinkertoys have been used to construct complex machines, including W. Daniel "Danny" Hillis's Tic-Tac-Toe playing computer from 1978. It is on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

TEN THOUSAND wooden parts contain the rules for Tic-Tac-Toe. On the front are 9 flags. A human player moves one flag to make his move. Mechanical linkages cause the machine to respond with its answer almost immediately.
  THE MACHINE NEVER LOSES.  
The manufacturers of the Tinkertoy Computer are Danny Hillis and Brian Silverman. On the left is Mitch Kapor, Chairman of the Board of Lotus, and on the right is Danny Hillis. Circa 1978.

A Tinkertoy Computer That Plays Tic-Tac-Toe.

HOW IT WORKS. (8 pgs - PDF)

Questor Educational Products Co. bought out Spalding in 1969, and move all operations out of Evanston by 1973. In 1985, Playskool acquired the Tinkertoy line (Tinkertoy Plastic and Tinkertoy Classic 'wood' sets and parts). Currently, Odds On Toys, a division of Hasbro, is distributing Tinkertoys. The US rights are owned by Basic Fun!.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.