Opening of Chicago's Michigan Avenue Bridge on May 14, 1920.

The opening of Chicago's Michigan Avenue Bridge on May 14, 1920.  The bridges ornamentation was added later.

Visitors to the Palmer House take a guided tour of Chicago in 1885.

Visitors to the Palmer House take a guided tour of Chicago in 1885.

The History of the Chicago Cardinals Football Team.

In 1898, Chicago painting and building contractor Chris O'Brien established an amateur Chicago-based athletic club football team named the Morgan Athletic Club. O'Brien later moved them to Chicago's Normal Park and renamed them the Racine Normals since Normal Park was located on Racine Avenue in Chicago.

In 1901, O'Brien bought used maroon uniforms from the University of Chicago, the colors of which had by then faded, leading O'Brien to exclaim, "That's not maroon; it's cardinal red!" It was then that the team changed its name to the Racine Cardinals.

The original Racine Cardinals team disbanded in 1906 primarily because of the lack of local competition. A professional team under the same name was formed in 1913, claiming the previous team as part of their history. As was the case for most professional football teams in 1918, the team was forced to suspend operations for a second time due to World War I and the outbreak of the Spanish flu pandemic.

They resumed operations later in the year (even with the suspension, they were one of the few teams to play that year) and have since operated continuously. When the founding of the modern National Football League, the Cardinals were part of a thriving professional football circuit based in the Chicago area. Teams such as the Decatur Staleys, Hammond Pros, Chicago Tigers, and the Cardinals had formed an informal loop similar to, and generally on par with, the Ohio and New York circuits that had also emerged as top football centers before the League's founding.

In 1920, the team became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football League (NFL) in 1922) for a franchise fee of $100. The Cardinals and the Chicago Bears (the latter founded as the Decatur Staleys before moving to Chicago in 1921) are the only charter members of the NFL still in existence. However, the Green Bay Packers, which joined the League in 1921, existed before the formation of the NFL. The person keeping the minutes of the first league meeting, unfamiliar with the nuances of Chicago football, recorded the Cardinals as from Racine, Wisconsin. The team was renamed the Chicago Cardinals in 1922 after a team actually from Racine, Wisconsin (the Horlick-Racine Legion) entered the League. That season the team moved to Comiskey Park.

The 1920 Chicago Cardinals. They are a charter member of the NFL and were in Chicago 2 years before the Bears.

The Staleys and Cardinals played each other twice in 1920 as the Racine Cardinals and the Decatur Staleys, making their rivalry the oldest in the NFL. They split the series, with the home team winning in each. In the Cardinals' 7-6 victory over the Staleys in their first meeting of the season, each team scored a TD on a fumble recovery, with the Staleys failing their extra-point try.

The Cardinal's defeat of the Staleys proved critical since George Halas's Staleys went on to a 10-1-2 record overall, 5-1-2 in league play. The Akron Pros were the first-ever league champions; they finished with an 8-0-3 record, 6-0-3 in league play, ending their season in a 0-0 tie against the Staleys. Since the Pros merely had to tie the game to win the title, they could afford to play not to lose. If the Staleys had not lost to the Cardinals, they would have gone into that fateful game with an 11-0-1 record and 6-0-1 in-league play. As it was, it all but assured that the Staleys/Bears and Cardinals would be intense rivals.

The two teams played to a tie in 1921 when the Staleys won all but two games. Thus the Cardinals came within 1 point of costing the Staleys a second consecutive championship in the League's first two years of existence.

In 1922, the Staleys, now renamed the Bears, went 9-3-0, losing to the Cardinals twice. The Bears still edged the Cardinals for 2nd place in the League, but those losses dashed all hopes of the Bears repeating as champions.

In 1923 and 1924, the Bears got the better of the Cardinals all three times the two teams played. But in 1925, the Bears went 0-1-1 against the Cardinals with the tie meaning the Cardinals were only a ½ game in front of the Pottsville Maroons heading into their fateful 1925 showdown.

Thus, in the first 6 years of the NFL's existence, the Bears-Cardinals games had a direct impact on the league championship 4 times. The Bears and Cardinals each took home 1 title during that span. But the Bears nearly cost the Cardinals their title, the Cardinals nearly cost the Bears their title, and had it not been for the Cardinals' tenacity against the Bears, the Bears very well might have won two more. In the League's early years, the Bears were a dominant team against everyone but the Cardinals. From 1920-1925, the Canton Bulldogs, champions in 1922 and 1923, beat the Bears just 2 times, and no other team in the NFL defeated the Bears more than once over that entire 6-year span... except for the Cardinals. The Cardinals battled the Bears to a 4-4-2 split between 1920–1925 and established the NFL's first rivalry.

Legend has it that the Cardinals played the Chicago Tigers in 1920, with the loser being forced to leave town. While this has never been proven, the Tigers disband after one season.

The 1925 season ended in perhaps the most significant controversy in professional football history. In those days, there was no fixed schedule nor any playoff games. The championship was decided by winning percentage. After losing in a Chicago snowstorm to the Pottsville Maroons 21-7, the Cardinals found themselves in second place at the season's end. Hoping to improve their record, they scheduled and won two hastily arranged games against weaker teams, the Milwaukee Badgers and the Hammond Pros. The ploy was within the NFL's rules at the time because of the open-ended schedule. Chicago finished the season with a record of 11-2-1. However, the League sanctioned them because a Chicago player, Art Folz, had hired four Chicago high school football players to play for the Milwaukee Badgers under assumed names to ensure a Cardinals victory.

Meanwhile, because Pottsville had played an unauthorized exhibition game in Philadelphia against the University of Notre Dame All-Stars, the Maroons were stripped of the title. The League decided not to award a championship for 1925. Later, it was offered to the Cardinals, whose owner, Chris O'Brien, refused to accept the championship title for his team. He argued that his team did not deserve to take the title over a team that had beaten them fairly. Only after the Bidwill family bought the Cardinals in 1933, the franchise began to claim the 1925 title as its own.

The Chicago Cardinals were one of the few NFL teams to host African-American players in the 1920s—most notably Duke Slater. After the folding of the first American Football League after its lone season, Slater, against all odds, successfully joined the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League.

Not only was Slater pro football's first African-American linemen, he was also one of the NFL's most outstanding linemen of his era. In 1928, he encouraged the team to sign Harold Bradley Sr., who became the NFL's second black lineman. Slater and Bradley played alongside each other in the first two games of the 1928 season. A steel plate in Bradley's leg, due to a childhood injury, contributed to Bradley ending his NFL career after only two games—the shortest among the 13 African American players who played in the NFL before World War II.

Between 1926 and 1927, a movement began among the owners of the NFL to follow the racist example of professional baseball. In 1927 every African-American player was out of the League, with the sole exception of Duke Slater. However, the color ban faced by Slater and other black players was not ironclad, and four other African-American players managed to draw salaries in the NFL during short careers interspersed from 1928 through 1933. Slater was once again the only black player in the League in 1929.

On November 28, 1929, Slater participated in an NFL record as a lineman in front of Ernie Nevers in a game in which he scored six rushing touchdowns in a 40-6 victory over the Chicago Bears. Slater played all 60 minutes of the contest, alternating between the offensive and defensive lines and participating on special teams.

By the time of his retirement in 1931, Slater had achieved All-Pro status a total of six times. During his NFL career Slater never missed a game because of injury, starting in a total of 96 of the 99 games he played between the AFL and NFL.

The Cardinals posted a winning record only twice in the twenty years after their 1925 championship (1931 and 1935), including 10 straight losing seasons from 1936 to 1945.

Dr. David Jones bought the team from O'Brien in 1929. In 1932 the team was purchased by Charles Bidwill, then a vice president of the Chicago Bears. The team has been under the ownership of the Bidwill family since then.

In 1944, owing to player shortages caused by World War II, the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the "Card-Pitt," or derisively as the "Carpets" as they were winless that season. In 1945, the Cardinals snapped their long losing streak (an NFL record 29 games, dating back to the 1942 season and including their lone season as Card-Pitt) by beating the Bears 16-7, which was their only victory of the season. In 1946, the team finished 6-5 for the first winning season in eight years.

In 1947, the NFL standardized on a 12-game season. This would be the most celebrated year in Cardinals history. The team went 9-3, beating Philadelphia in the championship game 28–21 with their "Million Dollar Backfield," that included quarterback Paul Christman, halfback Charley Trippi, halfback Elmer Angsman, and fullback Pat Harder, piling up 282 rushing yards. However, Bidwill was not around to see it; he had died before the start of the season, leaving the team to his wife, Violet. Before the season, he had beaten the Chicago Rockets of the upstart All-America Football Conference for the rights to Trippi. This signing is generally acknowledged as the final piece in the championship puzzle. The next season saw the Cardinals finish 11-1 and again play in the championship game, but lost 7-0 in a rematch with the Eagles, played in a heavy snowstorm that almost completely obscured the field. This was the first NFL championship to be televised. The next year, Violet Bidwill married St. Louis businessman Walter Wolfner, and the Cardinals fell to 6-5-1.

The 1950s were a dismal period for the Cardinals, with records of 5-7 (1950), 3-9 (1951), 4-8 (1952), 1-10-1 (1953), 2-10 (1954), 4-7-1 (1955), 7-5 (1956; the best year of the decade), 3-9 (1957), 2-9-1 (1958), and 2-10 (1959). With just 33 wins in ten seasons, the Cardinals were nearly forgotten in Chicago, completely overshadowed by the Bears. Attendance at Cardinals games was sparse. The Bidwills were anxious to move the Cardinals to another city with the team almost bankrupt. However, the NFL demanded a hefty relocation fee which the Bidwills were unwilling and/or unable to pay. Needing cash, the Bidwills entertained offers from various out-of-town investors, including Lamar Hunt, Bud Adams, Bob Howsam, and Max Winter. However, these negotiations came to nothing, probably because the Bidwills wanted to maintain control of the Cardinals and were only willing to sell a minority stake in the team.

Having failed in their separate efforts to buy the Cardinals, Hunt, Adams, Howsam, and Winter joined forces to form the American Football League. Suddenly faced with a serious rival, the NFL quickly came to terms with the Bidwills, engineering a deal that sent the Cardinals to St. Louis, Missouri. Beginning with the 1960 season in a move that blocked St. Louis as a potential market for the new AFL, which began play the same year. These are the home fields of the Chicago Cardinals from 1929-1959. Normal Park (1920–1921, 1926–1928) Comiskey Park (1922–1925, 1929–1930, 1939–1958) Wrigley Field (1931–1938) Soldier Field (1959, 4 games) Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota.

The NFL wanted to put a team in Minnesota, so 2 of the Cardinals games were moved there in 1959. Conversations were had with Violet Bidwill Wolfner, owner of the Chicago Cardinals, about moving her team to the stadium. The Cardinals moved two of their regular-season home games against the Philadelphia Eagles (October 25) (att: 20,112) and New York Giants (November 22) (att: 26,625) to Bloomington for the 1959 NFL season. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The John Rawle Cut-Stone Contractor, Chicago, Illinois. 1872

John Rawle, cut-stone contractor (or quarryman), was born at Exford, Somersetshire, England, on May 3, 1843, and is a son of John and Mary (Poole) Rawle. He received a common school education in the vicinity of his birthplace, and then learned the trade of a stone cutter and carver, which he followed in his native country for several years; he was also a draftsman in the office of Sir Charles Fox, who was the engineer of the first London World's Exposition, in 1851, and of a number of railroads in Russia, China, Japan, and South America.

In 1868, Rawle came to America, landing at Portland, Maine, in May. He worked at his trade for a time, and subsequently removed to St. Louis, where he remained until the fall of 1868 when he came to Chicago. For a short time went to New York, and from there to England, where he remained until the spring of 1869, and then he returned to Chicago, the city he called home, with the exception of a short time that he was engaged in business at Washington, Daviess County, Indiana

In the spring of 1872, he established business as the John Rawle Cut-Stone Contractors located at 570-598 South Morgan Street (today: Morgan & 14th Place), Chicago, and has since held a prominent position with the architects, builders, and contractors. Rawle furnished cut-stone for many of the finest buildings in Chicago and throughout the United States. His building occupied 377 feet on Morgan street and 215 feet on Henry street (today: 14th Place).

Rawle, like many others, sustained heavy losses, nearly losing his all in the Panic of 1873, and it was only by his indomitable energy, perseverance, tireless industry, and the most rigid economy in the management of his business that he was able to weather the storm.

He purchased the Carbondale brownstone quarry and later the Southern Illinois brownstone quarry, both of which were located at Bosky Dell, Jackson County, Illinois.

He took an active part in the formation of the Carbondale Brown-Stone Company, of which he was president and treasurer. The product of this company was in demand around the country. Its yards occupied 468-478 Fifth Avenue. Of the sixty-five firms which started in business in 1872, there were only two other firms besides his that survived, which was due to his attention to business and the superior quality of his workmanship. In 1884, he married Miss Augusta E. Zick, a native of Bosky Dell and a daughter of Daniel and Augusta Zick. They had three children.

Rawle also invented a unicycle which experts claimed would revolutionize the world of wheels.

Click for a full-size image.

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Click for a full-size image.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
JOHN RAWLE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.
UNICYCLE.
SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 482,100, dated September 6, 1892.
Application filed August 30, 1891. Serial No. 404,333. (No model.)

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Zeigler, Illinois - A Breath Away from Being the Nation’s Capital.

Levi Zeigler Leiter

Nestled away in the rolling hills of the Franklin County area of southern Illinois lays the forgotten town that, in 1904, was only a breath away from being the nation's capital. It was here that in 1901 a Chicago multi-millionaire named Levi Zeigler Leiter and his son Joseph brought the family fortune and began building a small empire. After buying 8000 acres of land, Joseph started sinking the coal mine that would become the original headquarters for the nationally known Zeigler Coal Company.

Leiter was so sure that his mine would be the largest and the most modern that he used champagne instead of water to mix the cornerstone concrete. He threw in a couple expensive diamond rings and his gold watch into the mix. Engraved in the cornerstone was the date of 2004 because Leiter claimed his mine modernization would be a hundred years ahead of its time.

Employees Inside the Ziegler Company Store.

In 1903 Joseph began clearing the land around the mine, and with a blank check, the blessing of his father, Levi Zeigler Leiter, and the support from his wealthy friends from Chicago, Joseph began making plans for the future. Among the Leiter family friends were super-rich Potter Palmer, Marshall Field, and George Pullman, who made up a large portion of the nation's wealth. Along with wealth came prestige and power that could open many important doors. One of the doors that were always open was the door to the White House, where the President often granted political favors through significant financial contributions.

The Leiters had contributed large sums of money to the presidential campaign of Theodore Roosevelt, and the time had come for them to call upon the President for a pay-back political favor. There was not enough satisfaction for the Leiters in the claim of getting Roosevelt elected President of the United States because they wanted something that would elevate them to the very top of society and overshadow everything others had accomplished.

In 1880 George Pullman, the owner and founder of the Pullman railroad car and coach company, had built his own town just south of Chicago, and the Leiters saw an opportunity to do the same in Franklin County. President Roosevelt always considered himself a country boy at heart and loved hunting and fishing, and the Leiters knew they had the area that would satisfy the President's favorite pastime. Here on the Leiter property in Franklin County was an abundance of quail and ducks, buffalo and deer, and plenty of rabbits and squirrels, and they knew it was the perfect spot for the President to live. Joseph hired the same architect who had laid out the Washington DC design to visit Franklin County to design the town he planned to build.

The design would be likened to the nation's capital, with a circle and streets running like spokes from a wagon wheel. As Leiter began building his town, he named it Zeigler in honor of his father's middle name. The Leiters and their wealthy friends knew it was time to flex their powerful financial muscles, call in political favors, and attempt to convince the President to move the White House and the nation's capital to the Leiters Franklin County town of Zeigler.

Zeigler Coal Mine

The political contacts were made, the lobbying began, and the wheels were put into motion for the big move to have Zeigler as the Nation's Capital. Everything was moving in the right direction for the Leiters, and Joseph opened his coal mine on June 8th, 1904 and brought the first load of coal to the surface. His future now looked brighter than ever, but it would be short-lived.

Company Provided Homes at the Zeigler #1 Mine. (1905)

The next day after the mine's grand opening, Joseph's father died from a rare heart disease, and Joseph's future suddenly looked dim. Not only was his future in jeopardy, but the blank checks he had enjoyed most of his life would probably be in jeopardy, and his chances of getting the Presidential White House moved to Zeigler died with his powerful father. Labor problems with the Klu Klux Klan and the unions began to take a toll on the man who claimed that he would continuously operate "union free," and it came to the point where he had to struggle to protect his own property.

He built a large fence around his mine that resembled an army fort, mounted large searchlights and several large calibers of "Gattling Guns" around his mine and the town's entrances, and issued orders to the gun-slinging thugs he had hired as security guards, that they were to "shoot to kill" any trespassers. Joseph continued to build his town, which consisted of a large two-story colonial-style office building in the center of the circle and a sizeable personal home that was located along with a company store on the circle. He built schools and a hospital and donated land so the local churches could be built. Joseph's "master & slave" attitude finally led to his downfall in the coal industry, and after a few severe mine explosions, he got out of the business in 1910 and leased his holdings to the Bell and Zoller Coal Company. His dreams and plans were shattered, and he returned to Chicago and continued to be very successful in other businesses.

Bell and Zoller kept the town of Zeigler moving in forward progress and reached its peak in 1926 when it boasted a population of nearly 7000 residents, 3500 employees, and 174 businesses. When the great depression hit the nation, few people in Zeigler recognized its impact of it. The Bank of Zeigler was one of only a few banks that survived the depression by flying in gross amounts of money from St. Louis. To show investors their desire for survival, the bank officials asked for and received special permission and plates from the US Treasury department. They printed their own money and put it into circulation. The business began moving from Zeigler, and with the decline in the coal business, so did many residents.

During the early 1940s, a Memorial Board was erected on the circle that honored men serving in the military. Surprisingly, the small town of Zeigler provided over 450 men to the military during the war efforts, and the board was later replaced with a stone monument that honored those who lost their lives in the wars. As the years passed, the demand for coal continued to dwindle, as did the population of Zeigler and today, the town has a population of 1749 (in 2016) and is a mere shell of what it once had been.

Today there is no trace of the large coal mine, the mine office in the circle, or the hospital and company store. The large home Leiter built for his residence has been remodeled and is still a private residence on the circle. Once in a while, the name of Joseph Leiter may be mentioned in a conversation between history buffs or from an elderly resident, but to the younger generation, Zeigler is just the small town where they live. They have no idea that their town was once within a human breath of becoming the home of the Presidential White House and the Nation's capitol.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.