What was found buried on Budlong Farm, the world's largest pickle farm in Bowmanville (Chicago), Illinois?

Lyman Budlong (1829-1909) was a remarkable pioneer in the pickle industry. He built a massive farm and processing factory on 700 acres in Bowmanville, Jefferson Township, Illinois. The Budlong Pickle Factory was established in 1869.

Lyman Budlong

He built a two-story frame house with a wagon shed attached and sheds for salting the pickles. It has been enlarged occasionally as the business increase is required.

The area is known as Budlong Farm (now called Budlong Woods) and is a neighborhood in the Lincoln Square community of Chicago.

The farm's boundaries were Bryn Mawr Avenue on the north (5600 north); Foster Avenue on the south (5200 north); Western Avenue on the east (2400 west); and Kedzie to the west; (Budlong  Woods western boundary was changed a little to the east when the North Shore Channel was completed in 1910).

Budlong grew tomatoes, onions, carrots, and head lettuce, but his vast money crop was cucumbers, which he processed on-site, becoming the world's largest supplier of premium pickles. At the peak of his vegetable operation around 1900, he seasonally employed about 1500 women, children, and 800 men, harvesting 12,000 bushels of vegetables daily and 150,000 bushels of cucumbers per growing season. Later, he changed his crop to flowers, growing them in many greenhouses.

Lyman Budlong died on November 6, 1909, and was buried next to his wife, Louise Newton Budlong, in Rosehill Cemetery, just a stone's throw from his massive pickle empire.

The Budlong company was eventually absorbed by Dean Foods.

Overlooking the Budlong Farm Fields.

Field workers picking pickles.

Horse-drawn delivery wagons.

Budlong Farm grows flowers in a massive number of greenhouses.

BOWMANVILLE HISTORY
Bowmanville was developed in 1850 by a local innkeeper named Jesse Bowman. Not one to follow the rules, Bowman "made the wagon/cart paths and forest near present-day Foster and Ravenswood Avenues his own," laying claim to many of the plots of land in the area without actually owning them. "He then sold the land—that wasn't his—to unwitting buyers" and disappeared before the new "owners" discovered that they did not actually own the land that Bowman sold them.

A large hill just north of Bowmanville was named Roe's Hill [1] for property owner Hiram Roe. Roe lived in a cabin and ran the Jug Tavern. Rosehill Cemetery opened in 1859. The entrance faced the North Western Railroad depot at Rosehill Drive, right at Hiram Roe's Tavern, as an encouragement to mourners and picnickers to make day-long outings to the area.

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The first business in Bowmanville, a tavern, was opened in 1868 by Christian Brudy. A short time later, Thomas Freestone built a tavern and hotel to serve the people visiting the Rosehill cemetery grounds.

LYMAN DISCOVERS A SMALL INDIAN BURIAL MOUND ON HIS PICKLE FARM
One fine day, Lyman was excavating for a gravel pit on the far west edge of his farm. He found an Indian burial mound in the middle of California Avenue, 165 feet north of Foster Avenue, at what today would be 5215 N. California Avenue.

Chicago, Tribune, Sunday, August 30, 1903 - page 41.
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Fourteen skeletons were found arranged in a circle, with their feet pointing to the circle's center. The Indian tribe was probably Potawatomi and lived in the Bowmanville Indian Village. The account further described the location: "When California Avenue is opened, the site will be on the highway." Today, this location is in the shadow of the Swedish Covenant Hospital complex.

Looking north on California Avenue from a few feet north of Foster Avenue. The burial mound would be located within the red highlighted section.

A second reference to this burial location is found in the book "Evanston, It's Land and Its People," published in 1928, on page 65, by Viola Crouch Reeling of the Fort Dearborn Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.

"A gravel pit excavated on the Budlong farm in Bowmanville in 1904 disclosed to view a grave containing fourteen skeletons buried in a circle, with their feet toward the center. The bodies were apparently well preserved until exposed to the air, when they crumbled, leaving only the skeletons. This was probably a Potawatomi Indian burial mound."

There is no record that the 14 bodies were relocated. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] Was Rosehill Cemetery Initially named Roe's Hill?

F.W. Woolworth Company. The old days when they sold cute baby turtles in their pet departments.

You could hear the squawking parakeets the minute you entered Woolworth's store. The hamsters, white mice running on their wheels, and the large tanks full of goldfish and guppies.

Looking southwest from the corner of Devon and Western Avenues, Chicago. The F. W. Woolworths had entrances on Devon and on Western. The Western Avenue entrance was in the Pet Department. Circa 1950s.

The tiny green turtles, young "Red-Eared Sliders" with pretty markings, didn't often live very long, no matter how careful you were caring for them... which I'm afraid was the fate of most of the turtles that kids carried home from Woolworth's.

They lived in containers like this one, which was more complex than it seemed at first glance. It was designed so the turtle has an "island" with ridges on the slanted approach, making it easier for the turtle to climb out of the water. The island also has a palm tree, a whimsical touch that had nothing to do with red sliders' preferred habitat of mucky ponds with rotting logs for perches.

Because the turtles could go without food for a few days and could retract into their shells to protect themselves, someone thought they could be shipped through the U.S. mail as premiums. The High Turtle Food Company sent these turtles through the U.S. Mail after painting the back of their shell with "Good Luck" and advertising their turtle food for 10¢. Buying any pet generally initiates a series of expenditures that soon outstrip the initial cost of that pet.

Live Turtle Box.

Where did the tiny green turtles come from? There were captive-breeding turtle farms in the deep South, particularly Louisiana, where turtle farming still thrives, mainly serving the Asian food market. Woolworth's pet departments were limited to goldfish until 1935, when company price limits on the cost of inventory ended. More expensive creatures were offered for sale, along with cages, collars and leashes, pet toys, packaged food, and medicines.

While Woolworth's pet departments survived until the entire chain closed in 1997, little green turtles ceased being part of the stock in 1975 when the Food and Drug Administration banned pet stores from selling turtles smaller than four inches in length because children picked up salmonella from playing with their pets and failing to wash their hands.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.