Abraham Lincoln Abhorred being called "Abe."

Abraham Lincoln liked to be called Lincoln, just Lincoln, as one of his Illinois law associates reported. He was Mr. Lincoln to his wife, Mary, and she also called him Father—he affectionately called her Mother or Molly.

He was called the 'Tycoon' to his wartime secretaries John M. Hay and John G. Nicolay. In a Civil War marching song, he was Father Abraham. 

He also loathed the formal title Mr. President. He signed his name as 'A Lincoln' to mediate between the variations of Abe and Abraham.

Honest Old Abe, Buffalo Commercial Advertiser Newspaper

But to the millions, Lincoln was Abe. Honest Abe, Old Abe; Uncle Abe; or Abe, the rail‑splitter.

In the John Nicolay papers at the Library of Congress and the Nicolay-Hay collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, are interviews Nicolay held with cabinet members, senators, congressmen and others who dealt with the president during the Civil War. 

A handful of them are preserved in an idiosyncratic (somewhat unusual) shorthand that was, mercifully, readable by an expert. One translated passage was especially intriguing. During an interview with a Pennsylvania politico (a politician or person with strong political views), Nicolay recorded a description of that man's visit with Lincoln in Springfield to urge the appointment of Simon Cameron, a major player in the Republican Party in Pennsylvania to a cabinet post. The document recounts, in longhand, how Lincoln resisted this pressure, then switches into shorthand just as the president-elect is about to utter his true feelings.

Here is the shorthand transcription of Lincoln's words about Simon Cameron: "All through the campaign my friends have been calling me 'Honest Old Abe,' and I have been elected mainly on that cry. What will be thought now if the first thing I do is to appoint Cameron, whose very name stinks in the nostrils of the people for his corruption?" 

Simon Cameron eventually became the 26th U.S. Secretary of War (March 5, 1861 – January 14, 1862), a job he botched.

Lincoln did not like the nickname Abe at all, but he understood that without the nickname of Abe, he would not have won the presidency in 1860. His image as Abe, the approachable everyman from the West, was promoted everywhere that year, sweeping him into office. 

The Hartford [Connecticut] Courant Newspaper declared that "One of the strongest arguments in favor of the election of Lincoln to the Presidency was his 'HONESTY' and "old-fashioned integrity and firmness."

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

A Brief History of the Pickle Barrel Restaurant.

The Pickle Barrel restaurant was Leo Osher's brainchild, who operated several Jewish-style restaurants and delis in the Chicagoland area from 1950 until his death.

A native of Chicago, Mr. Osher grew up on the West Side and graduated from Roosevelt High School. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he opened the Corned Beef Center, a small deli at 3352 Broadway at Roscoe Street in 1950. It remained in business for 10 years.

He opened the Pickle Barrel in 1960. The quirky restaurant was right at home on the popular streets of Chicago's Old Town (80+ photos). The walls were decorated with oddities and antiques. Guests were greeted with a barrel of pickles for snacking and a bucket of popcorn on each tabletop.

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The Pickle Barrel NEVER served peanuts on the tables so there were no shells on the floor. The "Ground Round" and "Chances R" restaurants had peanuts and the shells were thrown on the floor. 

 

At the Pickle Barrel, guests were seated with a small barrel of pickles, eat all you want, and a big bowl of popcorn. They sold a lot of beer.

The Old Town Pickle Barrel.

The Old Town Pickle Barrel Menu, 1423 North Wells Street, Chicago. 

The Pickle Barrel, in an average week, would go through 10 fifty-pound barrels of pickles (26,000 lbs a year)—each barrel containing about 1,200 pickles and 400 pounds of popcorn (20,800 lbs a year). The menu featured deli sandwiches and decidedly non-Jewish deli fare like ribs, fried shrimp, and sloppy Joes. Balloon artists entertained the kids, and pitchers of beer entertained the adults.

In 1964, Leo Osher was named the Pickle Man of the Year. "He was a natural candidate," said William Moore, retired executive vice president of the Pickle Packers International, then a national trade association, which bestowed the award on Mr. Osher. As the owner of Chicago's popular Pickle Barrel restaurant in Old Town at 1423 N. Wells Street. Osher played along good-naturedly with the publicity stunt, which, mercifully, only went so far. "I don't think he had to wear a banner or tiara," said his daughter-in-law, Ellyn Osher.

Oak Street Pickle Barrel

Osher opened four more Pickle Barrel locations, including one on Oak Street and one at Howard and Western. 

Success did not come without risks, however. In March 1964, two armed bandits robbed the Pickle Barrel, making off with $2,000. The two men forced four male patrons into a walk-in refrigerator until the crime was complete, Mr. Osher told police, according to a news report at the time. "He just said that was a terrible thing," said an employee of 21 years, Sue Glaser, manager of the Barnum & Bagel restaurant in Skokie, Illinois. "He never really talked a lot about it after that."

"They hit a niche. It was a simple menu with high energy and a lot of fun and value," said restaurateur Richard Melman, founder and chief executive officer of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.

Howard and Western Pickle Barrel

In the late 1970s, Osher sold the Pickle Barrel restaurant chain.

Osher was a resident of Skokie. He and his son Michael opened the Barnum & Bagel restaurant at 4700 West Dempster Street in Skokie. They briefly considered naming it "20th Century Lox."

Osher died Tuesday, April 20, 1999, of complications from heart surgery at a hospital in California where he had a second house. He was 79.

LOCATIONS:

The Pickle Barrel Restaurant, Old Town, 1423 North Wells Street, Chicago, IL

The Pickle Barrel Restaurant, 7574 North Western Avenue, Chicago, IL

The Pickle Barrel Restaurant, 50 East Oak Street, Chicago, IL

The Pickle Barrel Restaurant, Park Forest Plaza Shopping Center, Park Forest, IL

The Pickle Barrel Restaurant, 240 Skokie Highway, Northbrook, IL

VISIT OUR PICKLE BARREL SOUVENIR SHOP

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Chicago's Union Stock Yards Transit House Hotel (Originally the Hough House) Destroyed by Fire on January 5, 1912.

The new Hough House Hotel (1864). Renamed the Transit House which stood on the site of the future Stock Yard Inn after the 1912 fire.

This is an immense edifice is but in keeping with the greatness of all things to which the enterprise and energy of Chicago are applied. This building is named the “Hough House,” in compliment to Colonel Rosell M. Hough, one of the pioneers in the cattle and packing trade of Chicago. It is built of cream-colored bricks and in the very best style of modern hotel architecture. It cost $125,000 ($3,653,200 today) and was finished in 1854. It was leased by W. F. Tucker and Co., the popular proprietor of Briggs House, and by them furnished throughout. Its external dimensions are,130 feet front by 144 feet deep; it is six stories high and is located on the north-east quarter of the Stock Yard grounds. Burling and Baumann of Chicago, are the architects.

To those approaching or leaving the city, this immense building is a surprise. For miles, it is the only thing that breaks the expansive view over the prairies, and it is only when it is reached that the discovery is made that it is one of the necessary incidents of the Stock Yards. It is a comfortable and commodious house and is not too large for the business which is now rapidly increasing. The view from the cupola of the hotel is remarkably fine, commanding a view of the lake, the city, and the boundless prairie to the south.

The hotel is supplied with water from a well dug in the courtyard. At a depth of forty-five feet, a layer of rock was struck, and five feet below that water was obtained. This water rises in the well to within ten feet of the surface, and, as is supposed, to the level of the lake, from which it is evidently supplied. It is therefore inexhaustible. The water is forced into a tank upon the top of the building and is thus distributed through the various rooms..

The new six-story hotel was named the Hough House in 1854 in honor of Colonel Rosell M. Hough, founder of the Chicago Union Stock Yards. The hotel contained an exchange, bank, eating saloon, telegraph rooms, brokers’ offices, etc. It was later it was renamed the Transit House. 

CHICAGO HOTEL IS GUTTED.

Chicago, January 5, 1912. — The Transit House, a six-story brick hotel and restaurant at the Union Stock Yards was badly damaged by fire this afternoon. The flames started while the hotel, which is a gathering place for stockmen from all parts of the country, was crowded with guests.

Transit House, Union Stock Yards, Chicago

It was reported that a number of girls in the servant's quarters on the top floor of the burning building were trapped. Firemen who raised ladders rescued some of the women but were said to have been driven back by the flames before all who were cut off from the stairs had been carried to safety.

Later it was declared that all those on the upper floors had been rescued. Many of the guests had exciting escapes. A livestock commission merchant and his wife were so benumbed by the cold that they could not descend the fire escapes and were carried to the ground by firemen. At 2 o'clock the firemen declared that the flames were under control.

BATTALION CHIEF LACEY REPORTS

“The building, which was located on Forty-second and Halsted Streets, was 200×150 feet in dimensions, built of brick and wood, six stories high and about 46 years old. The outside walls were brick and there were no partition walls except those which divided the various rooms. The fire started in the kitchen at 10:07 p. m. and was stopped in the south wing after it had burned about twenty-four hours. An alarm was sent in by a Snap Register Watch Service and responded to by 35 engines and four truck companies. The hotel was equipped with a few house lines and chemical extinguishers and outside fire escapes, which enabled the 50 odd employees to make a successful escape. When the firemen reached the scene the flames were burning in the south wing from basement to roof. With 25,000 feet of hose laid and 40 single and double hydrants available, the department kept 35 streams at work until the flames were completely under control."

THE STOCK YARD INN

The Stock Yard Inn was erected in 1912 immediately after the Transit House fire at Halsted and Root Streets (now Exchange Avenue {41st Street}), right by the International Amphitheater. It had 175 comfortable rooms and a number of meeting halls, public and private dining rooms including the Saddle and Sirloin Club. It was designed originally for the accommodation of stockmen having business in the Chicago market—the world's largest center of livestock trade. It was of authentic Tudor architecture, rated the finest example of that type of construction in the Midwest. 

Stock Yard Inn

The Stock Yard Inn was intimately associated with America's livestock industry. Here the men who do the spade-work that puts meat on the tables of America have foregathered over the years to enjoy each other's society, to consummate fabulous trades, and to participate in the finest cuisine known from coast to coast.  

Guests at the Stock Yard Inn included presidents Roosevelt, Coolidge, Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. During the 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in the Amphitheater, the Inn was a center of political wheeling and dealing. The Inn also played host to other prominent and distinguished people from the U.S. and other countries—particularly Great Britain and Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.  

The Stock Yard Inn's last improvement was the Sirloin Room Restaurant where diners would select their own steaks, tableside, and brand their initials into the meat with a hot iron. It was one of Chicago's finest dining rooms. Quality of service was its pride.

But when the Stockyards were closed in 1971, it marked the beginning of the end for the Stock Yard Inn. Unable to attract significant business, the Stock Yard Inn was demolished in January 1977.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] Colonel Rosell M. Hough, after the Civil War, Colonel Hough was elected the first president of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce in 1864, and served as a founder of the Chicago Union Stock Yards, and supervised its construction until it opened in June of 1865.