Looking Northwest at the Buckingham Fountain, Chicago, Illinois.

Looking Northwest at the Buckingham Fountain, Chicago, Illinois.

Why is there a statue of Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley in the Springfield, Illinois' State Capitol?

On December 20, 1976,  Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley died suddenly. His death marked the end of his 21-year tenure as mayor and of an even longer career in public service that dated back to at least 1930, when he became deputy county treasurer in 1930.

There’s probably no one better remembered as the embodiment of Democratic Party power in Chicago than Daley, who served more than two decades as mayor. It might be a surprise to some that before he was Chicago’s Democratic Mayor, he was elected as a Republican to the Illinois House of Representatives.

In 1936 the Republican candidate from Bridgeport, David Shanahan, was running for his 22nd term when he died just before the general election with his name still on the ballot. Daley ran for his seat on the Republican line, but he immediately switched sides upon taking office the following year.

Two years later he was elected to the Illinois State Senate, where he served for an additional eight years. During that time, he championed a bill to create a branch of the University of Illinois in Chicago. He also served as the State Revenue Director under Governor Adlai Stevenson and as Cook County Clerk before being elected mayor in 1955.

After Daley died in 1976, State Representative John Vitek, a native of Daley’s Bridgeport neighborhood, began campaigning for a memorial in the State Capitol to the man he said "represented the voice of all the people of the city of Chicago and throughout the state.” Three years later, Illinois lawmakers agreed and sculptor Peter Fagan was hired to do the work on a lifesize bronze statue.

Daley’s statue in the capitol was dedicated in 1981 and was placed alongside other famous Illinois state legislators, including Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, first African-American Illinois Sen. Adelbert Roberts, first woman Illinois legislator Lottie Halman O’Neill, and the man whose death opened the door to the Daley dynasty, David Shanahan.

So, why isn’t there a statue of Mayor Daley in Chicago? For one thing, there aren’t many statues of Chicago mayors in the city at all. In fact, there are only two – Carter Harrison in Union Park and Harold Washington outside the Washington Cultural Center. 

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Allan Pinkerton (Pinkerton's National Detective Agency), Chicago, Illinois.

Allan Pinkerton (1819-84), founder of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on August 25, 1819. Pinkerton emigrated to the United States in 1842 and eventually established a barrel-making shop in a small town outside of Chicago. He was an ardent abolitionist, and his shop functioned as a "station" for escaped slaves traveling the Underground Railroad to freedom in the North.

Pinkerton's career as a detective began by chance when he discovered a gang of counterfeiters operating in an area where he was gathering wood. His assistance—first in arresting these men and then another counterfeiter, led to his appointment as deputy sheriff of Kane County, Illinois, and, later, as Chicago's first full-time detective.

Pinkerton left his job with the Chicago police force to start his own detective agency. One of the first of its kind, this predecessor to Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, provided an array of private detective services—specializing in the capture of train robbers and counterfeiters and in providing private security services for a variety of industries.

The first Pinkerton office opens at 80 Washington Street, Chicago, IL in 1850.

By the 1870s, Pinkerton's growing agency had accumulated an extensive collection of criminal dossiers and mug shots that became a model for other police forces.

In 1861, while investigating a railway case, Pinkerton uncovered an apparent assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln. It was believed that conspirators intended to kill Lincoln in Baltimore during a stop along the way to his inauguration. Pinkerton warned Lincoln of the threat, and the president-elect's itinerary was changed so that he passed through the city secretly at night.

Union General George McClellan later hired Pinkerton to organize a "secret service" to obtain military information in the Southern states during the Civil War. Pinkerton sent agents into Kentucky and West Virginia, and, traveling under the pseudonym "Major E. J. Allen," performed his own investigative work in Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi.

After McClellan was replaced as the commander of the Army of the Potomac in 1862, Pinkerton resumed the management of his detective agency. The agency expanded after the Civil War, opening offices in New York City (1865) and Philadelphia (1866). As his business grew, Pinkerton drew public attention to its work by producing a series of popular "true crime" stories.

In time, because Pinkerton's Agency was often hired by industrialists to provide intelligence information on union-organizing efforts, Pinkerton guards and agents gained notoriety as strikebreakers. Notable confrontations between Pinkerton agents and laborers include the 1886 Haymarket Riot and the 1892 Homestead Strike, both of which occurred after Pinkerton's death in 1884.

Allan Pinkerton is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Coal, the Technology that Changed Chicago.

Coal was abundant within 60 miles of Chicago. Coal has been the dominant energy source for most of Chicago’s modern history, especially from the 1850s to the 1950s. Coal fueled steamships and railroads, heated houses and large buildings, drove industrial machinery, pumped water, made steel, and was the primary source of gas and electricity.

Coal dock at the mouth of Chicago River 1941. Navy Pier in background.

The Fourth Annual Review of Commerce showed that in 1854 Chicago burned 50,000 cords of wood and 52,000 tons of coal. A cord of wood generally has less energy than a ton of coal. So even in the early years, coal was overtaking wood as a fuel. Chicago had nearly 70,000 people.  This would be equivalent to about 1.5 tons of coal per person.

The Committee on Smoke Abatement did a careful count of coal consumption in 1912. Twenty-one million tons of coal were consumed, or about 10 tons per person, six times the 1854 usage.  About 3 million tons were used for trains, 4 million for steel mills, and less than 1 million to produce gas. The remaining 13 million tons were used to produce heat, electricity, and stationary power.

Stationary power included such things as the massive pumps used to provide Chicago’s water supply and 19th-century factories with leather belts from a central steam engine to individual machines.

The Chicago Water Tower and coal-powered pumping station. The Water Tower concealed a large standpipe used to equalize pressure between strokes of the steam pistons.

According to the history of Peoples Gas, Texas, natural gas first became available in 1932. Prior to that gas had been produced from coal. The change from coal gas to natural gas was not complete until the 1960s.

Coal was also the dominant home heating fuel in Chicago. The 1940 Census shows that there were 949,744 occupied housing units. Of these 625,310 had coal central heating, 182,509 used coal stoves, about 100,000 used fuel oil, and 40,000 used gas heat, along with a few thousand using other fuels. Thus about 85 percent of the households used coal.

1920s Ad for gas heat. Gas heat did not really take off until the 1940s

In 1950, there were 1,071,735 occupied housing units; 600,955 with coal central heating; 69,310 with coal stoves;  about 163,000 with gas;  about 200,000 with liquid fuels. Thus 63 percent used coal.

A Chicago Housing Survey shows that in 1970, 198,000 or 17 percent of the households used coal. Five years later, only 15,000 or 1.5% still used coal. Natural gas now heated 80 percent of all households. 

Many buildings burned garbage with coal to produce heat and hot water. Coal heating was not an automatic process. Large buildings needed employees to move coal and ash, and run the boilers. Residential buildings of even a modest size employed members of the Flat Janitor’s Union to collect garbage. In the 1980s many of these jobs were eliminated. The Municipal Reference Library received calls from angry tenants who now had to haul their own garbage down the stairs.

Although a portion of Chicago’s electricity is still produced from coal, the last two coal-fired electric plants in the city were shut down in 2012. Coal is still used to make steel in Northwest Indiana. Inside the city, the only users seem to be a few coal-fired pizza restaurants.

Like most large cities, Chicago has a history of poor air quality. As it industrialized, Chicago relied on the dirty soft coal of southern Illinois for power and heat. Burned in boiler rooms, locomotives, steel mills, and domestic furnaces, the ubiquitous coal created an equally ubiquitous smoke. Soot soiled everything in the city, ruining furniture, merchandise, and building facades.

Coal-burning steamer on the Chicago River.

In 1881 Chicago was among the first cities to regulate smoke emissions. In 1907 the Department of Smoke Abatement became part of the city government. One successful effort involved converting the Illinois Central Railroad to electric power in the 1920s. Among other concerns, it was thought that trees were unable to grow in Grant Park due to coal smoke. Air pollution control has remained among the city’s responsibilities.

Chicago Public Library
Edited by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The History of the Lincoln Park Gun Club of Chicago, Illinois.

In 1912 Oscar F. Mayer, W. C. Peacock, P. K. Wrigley and other prominent Chicagoans built a remarkable shooting facility called the Lincoln Park Traps (LPT) on Chicago’s lakefront, where they had begun to play a new, unnamed sport. The club was located near Diversey Harbor at 2901 N. Lake Shore Drive.

By 1918, it was common to hear the pop, pop, pop of gun fire on the lakefront, the sound of which was muffled by the big lake that absorbed and deadened the explosive sound of firing.

The Chicagoans were enjoying a sport started by Charles E. Davies, an avid grouse hunter, who invented a shooting game in 1915 using live pigeons. In 1926, a contest was held to name the sport. Gertrude Hurlbutt won the contest with the name “Skeet,” which is derived from the Scandinavian word for shoot.

Lincoln Park Gun Club, Chicago, Illinois. 1929

There were two kinds of shooting at the club: trap and skeet. In trap, the target is thrown straight out over the water, so you are shooting as it moves away from you. With skeet shooting, the target goes from side to side, so you have to pan. In both cases, the target is a clay pigeon.

The Park District took over the property in 1934 and the club was open to the public.

The Lincoln Park Gun Club, Chicago, Illinois. 1948

The lakefront was dredged in 1947 to remove and gather the accumulated lead, with disputes taking place over who would benefit from the $150,000 for the sale of the recovered scrap metal. Five hundred tons of lead was recovered. Lead was then selling for $300 a ton.

By the 1940s, Skeet was used by the U.S. military to teach novice gunners the principle of leading and timing flying targets.

In February 1991, then Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris sued the club for allegedly polluting the lake with lead shot. The Chicago Park District immediately shut down the club until it could prove its activities were safe and also insisted it pay to have the lakefront dredged. Members charged that the shutdown was not due to pollution, but because of guns.

The gun club filed suit against the park district; however their suit was dismissed. The following summer, most of the club's buildings were demolished by the park district.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Opening of the Niles Center (Skokie) Train Service in 1925.

The opening festivities around the ‘L’ service being brought to Niles Center in 1925. Service on the North Shore Line’s Skokie Valley Route also passed through here, and the 'L’ shared track out to this location. (Niles Centre, Incorporated 1888; Americanized to Niles Center1910; Renamed to Skokie 1940)

The Niles Center route originally had several stops, but after 'L’ service had been discontinued along it in the 1940s (though, the North Shore Line continued to use it through 1963), the route was reopened with 'L’ service as the CTA Skokie Swift in 1964. The Swift was an experimental service to connect suburban drivers via Park & Ride to Chicago via high-speed rapid transit services. It was a successful experiment, and was kept as a regular CTA service. Today, it’s officially known as the Yellow Line, but many experienced riders still refer to it as the “Skokie Swift.”

The station building in the left of the photo, while moved a short distance, still survives today at the end of the Yellow Line as a retail/commercial property while trains serve a modest and modern, accessible facility in approximately this same location.

Panoramic view of Chicago taken from the roof of the Insurance Exchange Building. 1912

Panoramic view of Chicago taken from the roof of the Insurance Exchange Building. 1912
Click photo to see in full size.

The Cudahy Memorial Library, Loyola University of Chicago, Illinois.

Cudahy Memorial Library, Loyola University of Chicago, 1032 West Sheridan Road, Chicago, Illinois.

The Elizabeth M. Cudahy Memorial Library is the main library of Loyola University Chicago, and houses the university's fine arts, humanities, science and social sciences collections as well as the University Archives and government document depository collections.

The Cudahy physical collections comprise more than 900,000 volumes and 3,200 periodical subscriptions.

Dedicated on June 8, 1930, the Library was designed by Architect Andrew N. Rebori of the architectural firm of Rebori, Wentworth, Dewey and McCormick.

In contrast to the classical style of other buildings on the Loyola University Chicago Lake Shore campus, Rebori designed an Art Deco building. The library is constructed of concrete and structural steel with an exterior of limestone. The interior walls consist of Mankato stone. 

North Lake Shore Drive - from the Top of the John Hancock Building.

North Lake Shore Drive - from the Top of the John Hancock Building.

Olson Memorial Park, Waterfall and Rock Garden, Chicago, Illinois. (1935-1978)

Olson Rug Company was established in 1874. The manufacturing mill was located in Chicago at Diversey and Crawford Avenues (now Pulaski Road). When the raw material was scarce during WWII, people would send in their old wool rugs, rags, clothing, etc., and Olson Rug would turn them into a beautiful area rug. The family-owned business was "the place" to buy rugs for many years.

Alongside the factory was the renowned Olson Memorial Park. Walter E. Olson built the approx. 2-acre park in 1935. The project took nearly six months to complete. About 800 tons of stone and 800 yards of soil were used for its construction. Approximately 3,500 perennials, along with numerous species of pines, junipers, spruces, arborvitaes, and annuals, starkly contrasted the area's industrial surroundings. Olson Park's stunning rock garden, duck pond, and 35-foot waterfall replicated a waterfall on the Ontonagon River in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The park was intended for his employees to bring nature to the factory grounds. Olson's idea for the park came from his summer home in Little St. Germaine, Wisconsin, where nature in the north woods created a peaceful setting, and he thought he would do the same for employees and the crowded Avondale community well.

The opening of the park took place on September 27, 1935, what was then American Indian Day in Illinois (the fourth Saturday of September), as well as the 100th anniversary of a treaty that resulted in the final expulsion of the Pottawatomies, Chippewas, and Ottawas across the Mississippi, and included a symbolic gesture deeding back the area of the park to the Indians.

During the first Sunday after its dedication, Olson Park attracted as many as 600 visitors per hour. This theme was kept up with visiting Native American chiefs performing war dances in authentic period clothing periodically at the park.

As Olson Rug Park became more elaborate, it was opened to the public free of charge. A trailer was set up to serve hot dogs, lemonade, and other staples. The word spread. By 1955, over 200,000 people a year were visiting the park.

OLSON PARK AND WATERFALL

The park's decor changed with the season. At Christmas, there was the obligatory Santa. At Easter, the obligatory Easter Bunny. Halloween saw a floodlit moon hanging over the waterfall, complete with a witch on a broomstick.

In some years, the great lawn featured a re-creation of McCutcheon's famed cartoon "Injun Summer." [1]

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Marshall Field & Company bought the Olson Rug plant in 1965 and converted it into a warehouse. They kept the park that was adjacent to the plant operating until 1978 when the waterfall became too expensive to repair. It would have cost over $100,000 ($472,000 today) to fix it, and it's not clear how much the park costs to operate and maintain each year. Fields decided to level the park and paved it over to create a parking lot for employees and customers. Since the park was on private property, Fields had the right to do whatever they wanted with it without interference from the city. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] "Injun Summer" was first published in the Chicago Tribune, written by John T. McCutcheon, and printed in the September 30, 1907 newspaper. McCutcheon won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932, the first Tribune staff member to receive journalism's coveted award.

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Thoughts About "Injun Summer."

One day in the early fall of 1907, cartoonist John T. McCutcheon found himself groping for inspiration for a drawing to fill his accustomed spot on the front page of the Tribune. He thought back to his boyhood in the 1870s in the lonely cornfields of Indiana. "There was, in fact, little on my young horizon in the middle 1870s beyond corn and Indian traditions," McCutcheon recalled later, "It required only a small effort of the imagination to see spears and tossing feathers in the tasseled stalks, tepees through the smoky haze..."

That "small effort of imagination" became McCutcheon's classic drawing, "Injun Summer." It was accompanied by a lengthy discourse with the plain-spoken charm of Mark Twain. The cartoon proved so popular that it made an annual appearance in the Tribune beginning in 1912 and ran in hundreds of other newspapers over the years.

Blackberry Farm's Pioneer Village, Aurora, Illinois.

The park district began developing Aurora parks in the late 1940s. By 1969, the park district owned almost 800 acres of land and had built Pioneer Park, now known as Blackberry Farm.

Blackberry Farm’s Pioneer Village is a living history museum with an Arboretum, Carriage House, Farm Museum, an Early Streets Museum, Pioneer Cabin, Hay Wagon Ride, Train Ride and more. You will also witness demonstrations on how people lived in the 19th century and how crafts were done. Blackberry Farm is a beautiful and quaint village amidst the bustle of the modern city. The park is composed of 54 acres of scenic land, ponds, lake and stream. It has several period attractions that will amaze many guests.

The Arboretum- It is a botanical garden with more than 200 varieties of trees and floral displays. It is the site of historic agricultural gardens dotting the landscape of the park.

Carriage House- There are 40 carriages and sleighs as well as commercial vehicles on display at the Carriage House Museum.

Farm Museum- A large collection of rare tools and implements used widely in the mid- 19th century and early 20th century.

Early Streets Museum- Walk along the street where eleven late Victorian-era stores are on exhibit. Among these stores are a pharmacy, general store, photography shop, toy store and music shop from the bygone era.

Around the Blackberry Farm’s Pioneer Village, you will find a one-room schoolhouse, a farm cabin as well as an Aurora home built in the 1840s. In each area, staffs demonstrate certain activities that depict the life of people in the 19th century. Craft Demonstrations are also done in the Village. Watch period craft demonstrations such as blacksmithing, weaving, sewing, pottery and spinning.

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Blackberry Farm's Pioneer Village

Cora Agnes Benneson, born in Quincy, Illinois: Early Lawyer, Reformer, Scholar. 1851-1919.

Cora Agnes Benneson, a celebrated woman in her native Quincy and beyond, was born in 1851 to pioneers Robert and Electa Ann (Park) Benneson.

She was educated and taught in the community until her early 20s. Benneson went on to navigate a "life without precedents." In 1888 after receiving several degrees and traveling the world she moved permanently to the Boston area, where she was one of the first female lawyers. Anticipating a visit by Benneson a 1909 Quincy Journal headline states, "The Gem City is Proud of Her Distinguished Daughter." Throughout her life, Benneson received accolades as a scholar, lawyer, reformer, and lecturer.

Benneson grew up with three older sisters, Alice, Annie, and Caroline, in a mansion at 241 Jersey Street, Quincy, Illinois, on the bluffs of the Mississippi River. The impressively landscaped residence allowed a view of fourteen miles of the river and a bird's eye view of the passing steamers.

The homestead of the Bennesons was a large mansion located on the bluffs of the Mississippi River at 214 Jersey Street in Quincy, Illinois. The home, situated above a series of terraces, commanded a magnificent view of fourteen miles of the river.

The Benneson girls were schooled by their mother who had been a teacher in New England. Cora was an enthusiastic reader and at 12 read and wrote Latin. Benneson attended the Quincy Academy during the Civil War and graduated with a high school diploma when she was 15. She enrolled in the Quincy Female Seminary, established in the fall of 1867, and graduated on June 26, 1869, when she was 18.

From left to right, Alice Bull, Mary Marsh, Nellie Marsh, and Cora Benneson made up the 1869 graduating class from the Quincy Seminary, commonly known as Miss Chapin’s Private School. The Quincy Seminary was in existence from 1867-1876.

Benneson stayed on as an instructor of English from 1869 to 1872. She was an early member of Friends in Council, a women's study group, and a member of the Unitarian Church where she founded the original Unity Club, a forum on leading topics of the day.

Benneson's parents were involved with community leaders in politics and education. Robert Benneson served as an alderman for several years, mayor from 1859-60, and a member of the School Board for 16 years (1870-1886). Benneson was initially in the lumber business and later built what was known as the Benneson Block on the south side of Maine Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. The Bennesons' helped to establish the Unitarian church in Illinois. Entertaining notable men who lectured in the Midwest, Benneson dinner guests included Ralph Waldo Emerson, lecturer and essayist, who it is said made the "greatest impact upon Benneson's developing mind."

In 1875 Benneson enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor shortly after women were accepted. She completed the four-year course of study in three and was the first woman editor of the university newspaper, The Chronicle. She then applied to law school at Harvard but was denied because Harvard did not have "suitable provision for receiving women." She attended law school at the University of Michigan and was one of two women in her law class of 175. With her law degree obtained in 1880, she stayed on to receive a master's degree in jurisprudence and German. Benneson was admitted to the Michigan bar in March 1880 and Illinois bar in June 1880.

To broaden her knowledge of legal procedures around the world Bennesen toured foreign cultures to see their legal systems. She also made of point of looking into the treatment of women and opportunities available for them in foreign countries. In this quest, she embarked on a two-year and four-month journey leaving Quincy on June 13, 1883. On Oct. 2, 1883, the Philadelphia Chronicle-Herald noted that "Miss Cora Benneson, the Quincy, Illinois female lawyer, is making a tour around the world."

Traveling with a Miss White of Boston, the two sailed first to Hong Kong. With some risk, they toured Canton, China with Cora reporting that war with France seemed "imminent." From there the journey took them to Japan and on to India, Burma, Abyssinia, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Norway, Russia, Italy, France, and England. In the fall of 1885, they returned to the states sailing from Queenstown, Ireland.

As she circumnavigated the globe, Benneson documented her exotic and notable experiences. Her father, Robert, made a practice of taking her letters to the children of the grammar division of Jefferson School. A Quincy Daily Journal story of March 14, 1884, indicates the students anxiously followed her travel experiences.

Once back in Quincy those stories were relayed in lecture series throughout 1886 and 1887.

Briefly, in 1886, she was the law editor of the Law Reporter of West Publishing. From the fall of 1887 to spring of 1888 Benneson was a fellow in history at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia and studied administration under future President Woodrow Wilson.

Fourteen years after leaving law school Benneson opened what became a successful law practice. The Boston Globe announced in December 1894 that Benneson was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts and established her law practice in her home at 4 Mason Street in Cambridge, now on the Harvard campus. The Quincy Morning Whig reported that a number of Quincy people were present to witness the proceedings.

When Benneson moved to the Boston area, she attended Radcliffe College earning a second master's degree in 1902.

Benneson, steeped in advocacy for equal rights and suffrage while a young woman in Quincy, worked with suffrage leaders throughout her life. Benneson was a good friend of suffragist Lucy Stone, a prominent organizer for the rights of women. Benneson spoke about the new roles of women in both the private and public spheres. On a visit to Quincy in 1895, she spoke to the Women's Council on June 14 as a proponent for full suffrage. The Boston Globe on Sunday, Feb. 17, 1895, reported that Benneson spoke at a symposium titled, "The Coming Woman."

The New York Times of June 27, 1900, reported that Cora Benneson, Massachusetts attorney and special commissioner, presented a paper, "The Power of Our Courts to Interpret the Constitution," at the 49th general session of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to the Social Economic Group at Columbia University. Benneson studied questions concerning government and wrote on topics such as "Executive Discretion in the United States" and "Federal Guarantees for Maintaining Republican Government in the States." Recognized by the Association she was made a fellow in 1899. Apart from government research, Benneson frequently authored articles on law, education, politics, and social science.

At the age of 68, Benneson was prepared to undertake a new direction in life as a civics teacher under a program for the Americanization of immigrants. She had just received her Massachusetts certification when she died in her home in Cambridge on June 8, 1919. Her cremated remains arrived in Quincy on June 16 and her ashes are buried with the family in the Benneson lot at Woodland Cemetery.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

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OBITUARY OF MISS CORA BENNESON 
From: Quincy Daily Herald Newspaper, June 12, 1919.

BRILLIANT WOMAN DIES...

MISS CORA BENNESON WAS NATIVE OF QUINCY.

Member of Bar of Three States and Had Won Many Honors-Founder of Unity Club in This City.

Miss Cora Benneson, one of the women who has made the name of Quincy known abroad, and at one time one of the city's best-known residents, died at her home in Cambridge, Mass., last Sunday and was buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery (NOTE: Benneson is buried at Woodland Cemetery. Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts has no record. Both per Find-a-Grave, records). 

Word of her death came to her sister, Mrs. George Janes of this city. Miss Benneson was one of the few women attorneys in the country, and for many years had been practicing her profession in Boston. About a year ago she gave up her active practice of the law and fitted herself as a teacher of civics under the auspices of the state board of education of Massachusetts, which has established a school in Boston for the Americanization of foreigners. Miss Benneson worked so hard to fit herself for this new work that she suffered a break down in health about six weeks ago, and her labors were the cause of her death. Her diploma, entitling her to the position which she sought, came just a day after she died.

WON MANY HONORS
Miss Benneson was born in Quincy, the daughter of Robert S. and Electa Ann Benneson. She was graduated from Miss Chapin's School, and later attended the University of Michigan, where she received her LL.B. degree (Bachelor of Laws) in 1880, and her A.M. degree (Master of Arts) in 1883. She was admitted to the Illinois and Michigan bars in 1880 and to the Massachusetts bar in 1894.

In 1883, Miss Benneson left Quincy for a tour of the world, which lasted for two years. On her return, she went to St. Paul [Minnesota], where she edited law reports for the West Publishing Company. She gave lectures on her trip around the world in 1885-86 and was appointed a special commissioner in Massachusetts in 1895, and subsequent years. She was awarded a fellowship in history at Bryn Mawr College in 1887. She was also an honorary member of the Illinois State Historical Society and sole trustee of the Edward Everett estate in Boston.

FOUNDER OF UNITY CLUB
Miss Benneson was a contributor to journals on topics of law, education, and political and social science, and throughout the east was recognized as one of the leading members of the bar. In Quincy, she was prominent in the literary life of the city and was one of the early members of Friends in Council and the founder of the original Unity Club of the Unitarian Church. Robert S. Benneson, her father, was one of the first mayors of Quincy and the family was a prominent one. The old family home was at 214 Jersey Street, and afterward on Broadway, between Fifth and Sixth, next door to the F. T. Hill home. The house was torn down to provide additional grounds for the present detention home.

Miss Benneson leaves two sisters, besides Mrs. Janes. They are Mrs. Anna McMahon, now at Atlantic City, N.J. and Mrs. Alice B. Farwell of Boston. Guido Janes, Mrs. Charles Seger and Mrs. Philip Schlagenhauf of this city are nephews and nieces of Miss Benneson.