The 1864 Civil War Soldier's Home at 739 East 35th Street in Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago's last surviving building with a direct association to the Civil War (1861-1865).

Soldier’s Home; illustration by Louis Kurz, August 1866.
View of shelter for Civil War veterans, presenting a lively scene with a passing train on the IC tracks, and a crew of four with steersman rowing a boat, and a sailboat at the lakefront. The building still exists, its south side location saving it from the Great Fire. 

The Soldier's Home was constructed at the edge of the Camp Douglas prison camp through the efforts of a women's group. During the war, it was a hospital for convalescent soldiers; following the war, it served as a home for disabled Union Army veterans. The building's earliest sections were designed in an Italianate style by William W. Boyington, the architect of the Chicago Water Tower. The structure has had several additions since then, most of them surrounding a common light well.

Designated a Chicago Landmark on April 16, 1996.

A Description from the 1860s.
The "Soldier's Home" is located near the south-eastern limits of the city, in the immediate vicinity of the Chicago University and of the Douglas Monument. Its history is honorable to the noble ladies who protected it, and to whose labors its successful maintenance is alone to be attributed. The history of the great Sanitary Commission will live while men have hearts to remember deeds of love and mercy.

But in the spring of 1863, the number of poor, weary, dIsabled and sick soldiers returning from the Civil War field suggested the necessity of some united effort in their behalf. A meeting of ladies was held at Bryan HaIl in June of that year, and it was resolved to hold a strawberry festival to raise funds. This was successful, and the building, No. 45 Randolph street, was rented as a Home for sick and disabled soldiers. The ladies then resorted to seeking subscriptions from door to door, and their appeal met a liberal response. The site of the present Home was then purchased and the buildings thereon used for the time. The house on Randolph street was used to receive the soldiers, who were then transferred to the “Home.” The building is four stories high, and is built of brick, with basement and attic, and has ample accommodations for two hundred inmates. As soon as the Home was first organized, an auxiliary institution was put in operation, known as the “Soldier’s Rest.” The Government furnished the buildings and rations, the ladies managed all the rest.

The operations of the two branches of the Home for the first year were: Number of arrivals, 46,384; meals furnished, 96,909; lodgings, 26,481; medically treated, 2,557. The second year furnished the following figures : Number of arrivals, 60,003; number of meals, 167,263. During the year ending June 1, 1865, there had been 767 inmates of the Home received; many of them were provided with clothing, and all were fed. Since then the average number of inmates always exceeded 100. There are now one hundred and more sick and disabled men who are given the comforts of a home, which, to the destitute, is a boon beyond value.

In 1865, the Home received $80,000, part of the proceeds of the Fair of that year held in Chicago. All else has been the result of voluntary contributions in response to personal applications and appeals by the ladies.

Soldiers' Home, now owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago. Built in phases, between 1864 and 1923, by William W. Boyington. Designated a Chicago Landmark on April 16, 1996.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Illustration of the Junction of the Chicago River. July 1866 (Artist: Louis Kurz)

Chicago River — This view is of that portion of the river where the two branches unite and form the main river. The drawing is taken from a point on West Water Street, north of the approach to Lake Street Bridge.

It presents a scene hardly equal in animation to what is generally to be seen at that point. On the right are the protections to Lake Street Bridge. On the left is a vessel in tow of a tug coming from the north branch, and in the extreme distance is Wells Street Bridge over the main river. On the north side of the river are the Iowa and other Elevators, and on the south the row of warehouses lying between South Water Street and the river. At the front of the picture may be seen the upper portion of a locomotive upon the track which connects along this line the various Northern and Western with the Southern and Eastern Railways.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Chicago as a Hunting Post.

"It has often been said that Chicago was nothing more than a hunting post in its earliest days. Yet the average Chicagoan has little idea of the type of animals whose habitat was around Chicago and whose skins formed a profitable source of livelihood for many hardy trappers. In fact, nothing could attract pioneers to the bleak and cold Northwest in those days unless it was hunting."

A Wolf Hunt in Chicago in the Early Days.

There are several of these veteran trappers alive today [1897], and they delight in telling stories of their experiences. Jon Phillips, a messenger at the Sheffield Avenue Station, the oldest policeman in the Chicago department, was one of these early trappers. He was a professional huntsman employed by Eastern houses to secure the skins of various animals, which at that time brought even a higher price.

The Chicago Academy of Science, the Matthew Laflin Memorial Building. Businessman and philanthropist Laflin was the primary funder for a new building in Lincoln Park on October 31, 1894.

The Chicago Academy of Science has made some effort to secure the complete list of the animals that found their homes in Northern Illinois.

An Illinois Home Where the Buffalo Roam.

People don't realize that the American buffalo was once among the common animals which could be hunted about Chicago. A curious error prevailed with the early explorers in connection with the buffalo. In the voyages of Père Marquette (Père Marquette, Jacques Marquette or Father Marquette (1637–1675) was a French Jesuit missionary), written by a Frenchman and published in 1681, it appears that Marquette spoke of one district as inhabited by “nations qui ont des chevaux et des chameaux,” or translated means “nations who have horses and camels.” The peculiar appearance of the buffalo undoubtedly gave origin to this error.

The river is also said to have contained what is now known as the American beaver, and many of them were caught in the Calumet region. There were also otters, and black bears were not uncommon. Deer were killed as late as the 1870s in Chicago. Among the other smaller animals were the shot-tailed shrew, the silvery mole, the star-nosed mole, the white and grey wolf, the red and grey fox, brown and black minks, the common skunk, raccoon, opossum, Western fox squirrel, gophers striped and grey, woodchuck or groundhog, the ground rat, and common mouse, prairie mouse, meadow mouse, muskrats, and grey rabbit.

Yea, Yea... I'm a Titmouse!
Small size ● Big attitude

Of the songbirds, there were nine species of thrushes, one specie of bluebirds, three warblers, and one kind of titmouse and chickadees.

Of reptiles, there was a large and various assortment. There were rattlesnakes, copper heads or cottonmouths, spotted adders, king snakes, black snakes, garter snakes, spotted snakes, leather snakes, pilot snakes, grass snakes, hog-nosed snakes, spreading adders, and water snakes galore.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lost Towns of Illinois - Wabonsia and Kinzie's Addition; Today's Fulton River District of Chicago.

The land just west of the Guarie River [1] and north of Wolf Point was once Wabonsia, Illinois, a separate town from the expanding town of Chicago to the south.

The plat of the area is named "Wabonsia and Kinzie's Addition." It's on the north side of the Chicago River. James Kinzie registered the plat map of Wabonsia with Cook County, State of Illinois, on September 18, 1835.
CLICK THE IMAGE FOR A FULL-SIZE MAP

Appearing on this 1835 plat map of the town of Chicago, Kinzie’s Addition, “Wabobsia,” a sliver of roads and river, was its own separate town. Owned by James Kinzie (Virginia-raised second son of John Kinzie and Margaret McKinzie Kinzie, his first wife). Wabonsia became part of Chicago sometime between the Town of Chicago on August 12, 1833, and the City of Chicago on March 4, 1837. Kinzie Street is named after John Kinzie.

Handwritten notes on the map of Wabonsia

June 17, 1835  }
State of Illinois }
Cook County    } 

This day before me came James Kinzie, personally known and acknowledged himself to be the proprietor of the Town of Wabonsia in Cook County, Illinois, as corrected by a special act of the legislature of the State of Illinois in the year 1835 and personally knows to me as such proprietor. Given under my hand and seal this 28th day of August A.D. 1835. Isaac Harmon J.C. {seal} 

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Recorded September 18th, 1835
Richard J. Hamilton, Recorder of Deeds.

Map of the resurvey of Wabonsia by special act of the legislature in 1835. June 17, 1835. J. Wooley Jr., Surveyor C.C. Ills. (Cook County, Illinois) by Geo. W. Snow, Deputy.

As corrected by a special act of the legislature in 1835 and accepted and adopted by the trustees of the Town of Chicago. August 26, 1835. 

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Recorder of Cook County
State of Illinois }
Cook County    } 

I, William L. Church, Clerk of the Circuit Court, and Ex-officio Recorder in and for said County, in the State aforesaid, do hereby certify that the annexed is a true and correct copy of a certain Map filed in my Office, on the Eighteenth day of September, A.D. 1835. and Recorded in Book № 'H' of Maps on page 62, the party to the same being James Kinzie.

In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of our said Court, at Chicago, this tenth day of July, A.D. 1860.

William L. Church.

Clerk of the Circuit Court and Ex-Officio Recorder of Cook County.

Wabonsia was bounded by Jefferson Street to the west and Kinzie Street to the south. The river's north branch did and still does cut northwest, making the third side of this triangular-shaped town. Wabonsia was on a grid, like Chicago, but its grid cut northeast, askew from the town to the south and parallel with the river’s branch.

Every angled street in the plat map, Kane Street, Dunn Street, Cook Street, and Water Street are long gone.

In Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie's (John H. Kinzie's wife) 1856 memoirs “Wau-Bun, the Early Day in the Northwest," she wrote: 

"Early in February 1833, my husband [John H. Kinzie] and Lieutenant Hunter, in company with one or two others, [James Kinzie; Virginia-raised second son of John Kinzie and Margaret McKinzie Kinzie, his first wife, was one of the 'others'] set off on a journey to Chicago. That place had become so much of a town [about fifty inhabitants] that it was necessary for the proprietors of "Kinzie's Addition" to lay out lots and open streets through their property."

The plat was corrected (unknown changes) on June 17, 1835, by surveyor J. Wooley then approved on August 26, 1835, by the State of Illinois, Cook County Recorder of Deeds. This was the beginning of the Town of Wabonsia. 

Wolf Point Tavern, Chicago’s first tavern, was owned by James Kinzie, and Wolf Point was just south of Wabonsia. A few old sketches of the tavern do show a wooden bridge to the north. 

The taverns at Wolf Point, where the north and south branches of the Chicago River merged, were typical of inns of the 1830s. The Wolf Tavern, with a sign, is at the left, while Miller’s Tavern sits on the riverbank at the right.

James Kinzie set aside this town to make it easier to sell the land to Chicago, not because he envisioned a community there.

NOTE: "Wabonsia Avenue" is named for Chief Waubonsie, who was an early 1800s Potawatomi leader and his brother Black Partridge aka Black Pheasant who was also a Potawatomi chieftain. He was very active in relationships between the Potawatomi and Fort Dearborn. Chief Waubonsie, whose name means "early dawn," was known for his peacemaking efforts.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

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[1] Guarie River - The first non-indigenous settler at Wolf Point may have been a trader named Guarie. Writing in 1880, Gurdon Hubbard, who first arrived in Chicago on October 1, 1818, stated that he had been told of Guarie by Antoine De Champs and Antoine Beson, who had been traversing the Chicago Portage annually since about 1778. Hubbard wrote that De Champs had shown him evidence of a trading house and the remains of a cornfield supposed to have belonged to Guarie. The cornfield was located on the west bank of the North Branch of the Chicago River, a short distance from the forks at what is now Fulton Street; early settlers named the North Branch of the Chicago River the Guarie River or Gary River.

Carroll Street, a little-known subterranean street which runs under some of the best-known buildings in Chicago's River North neighborhood.

At the mouth of the north branch of the Chicago River, the Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge stands as a relic of Chicago’s industrial past. It also marks the western end of Carroll Street, an old freight corridor that brought traffic to the bridge and yet remains, though largely forgotten and invisible in the modern cityscape.

The subterranean Carroll Street's name origin is not recorded. Carroll Avenue in the "Near West Side" community was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton. It begins at Morgan Street on the east and ends at Leavitt Street on the west, a distance of 1.5 miles. Charles Carroll (1737-1832) was an American Revolutionary patriot, a member of the Continental Congress, a wealthy Catholic landowner, and a U.S. Senator from Maryland and was the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge.

To understand the significance of Carroll Street, it helps to understand the history of the Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge. Located at a historically well-trafficked point of crossing, the current bridge was preceded by the first bridge ever built across the Chicago River (a pedestrian bridge built in 1832). The first railroad bridge that was built in Chicago (replacing the pedestrian bridge in 1852). And one of the first all-steel railroad bridges in the United States (replacing the previous bridge in 1879). The current bridge replaced that bridge in 1908, and it was, at the time of its completion, the longest and heaviest bascule bridge in the world.

The crossing point was important because it was the most obvious place to move people and goods from the north shore of the Chicago River to the train yards on the west side of the river’s forks. Although passenger train traffic ceased in 1911, the industrial activity in downtown Chicago ensured that this remained an important freight artery throughout most of the 20th century. The rail lines that extended from the Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge all the way to Navy Pier carried Baby Ruths and Butterfingers for the Curtiss Candy Company, newspapers for the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, supplies for the Jardine Water Purification Plant on Lake Michigan (the largest capacity water filtration plant in the world), retail and wholesale goods to the Merchandise Mart (the largest building in the world when it opened in 1930), and any other freight that was part of the busy economic life of the area.

All that remains of this once-important freight line is Carroll Street. As industry moved out of the area in the late 20th century, train traffic dried up until, in the 1990s, only the Sun-Times still used the rails, sending one newspaper-laden train per day from their downtown printing plant. When that facility was moved in 2000, the Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge was raised and the train tracks that run down the middle of Carroll Street have lain disused ever since.

Carroll Street, though, does not go unused. While multiple sections of the street are blocked off to regular traffic, the large basement loading docks that once flanked the rail lines have been converted to parking lots and the street is frequently used for deliveries, garbage pickup, and contractor access for the buildings above. Musicians performing at the House of Blues find that Carroll Street provides conveniently inconspicuous access to the venue. And the Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge — designated a Chicago Landmark in 2007 — is still owned by Union Pacific, who lower it and drive a pickup truck across it once per year to maintain their right of way. Suggestions to turn the street into a public transit corridor have yet to bear fruit.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.