The Panic of 1819

The Panic of 1819 initiated the nation's first major depression that swept across the country like a wildfire. 

As early as 1814, Thomas Jefferson warned, "We are to be ruined by paper, as we were formerly by the old Continental paper money." 

A 1775 Continental Twenty Dollar Paper Currency Note.

Two years later, Thomas Jefferson asserted that "we are under a bank bubble" that would soon burst. The Second Bank of the United States was supposed to steady the economy, but gross mismanagement in its early phase sapped its effectiveness. The bank's first president, William Jones, instead of taking steps to regulate the nation's currency, doled out huge loans that fed speculation and inflation. He also kept lax watch over state banks, where fraud and embezzlement created chaos.

The growth in trade that followed the War of 1812 came to an abrupt halt. Unemployment mounted, banks failed, mortgages were foreclosed, and agricultural prices fell by half. Investment in western lands collapsed.

By early 1819, credit, once so easy to obtain, was unavailable to most Americans.

The panic was frightening in its scope and impact. In New York State, property values fell from $315 million in 1818 to $256 million in 1820. In Richmond, property values fell by half. In Pennsylvania, land values plunged from $150 an acre in 1815 to $35 in 1819. In Philadelphia, 1,808 individuals were committed to debtors' prison. In Boston, the figure was 3,500.

For the first time in American history, the problem of urban poverty commanded public attention. In New York in 1819, the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism counted 8,000 paupers out of a population of 120,000. The next year, the figure climbed to 13,000. Fifty thousand people were unemployed or irregularly employed in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one foreign observer estimated that half a million people were jobless nationwide. To address the problem of destitution, newspapers appealed for old clothes and shoes for the poor, and churches and municipal governments distributed soup. Baltimore set up 12 soup kitchens in 1820 to feed the poor.

The downswing spread like a plague across the country. In Cincinnati, bankruptcy sales occurred almost daily. In Lexington, Kentucky, factories worth half a million dollars were idle. Matthew Carey, a Philadelphia economist, estimated that 3 million people, one-third of the nation's population, were adversely affected by the panic. In 1820, John C. Calhoun commented: "There has been within these two years an immense revolution of fortunes in every part of the Union; enormous numbers of persons utterly ruined; multitudes in deep distress."

The volatile Tennessee politician Davy Crockett spoke for many when he dismissed "the whole banking system" as nothing more than "a species of swindling on a large scale," which fostered mistrust of banks, bankers, and paper money.

The aging Thomas Jefferson complained that the new generation, "having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of 1776, now look to a single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and money incorporations… riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry."

The panic had several causes, including a dramatic decline in cotton prices, a contraction of credit by the Bank of the United States designed to curb inflation, an 1817 congressional order requiring hard-currency payments for land purchases, and the closing of many factories due to foreign competition.

The panic unleashed a storm of popular protest. Many debtors agitated for "stay laws" to provide relief from debts as well as the abolition of debtors' prisons. Manufacturing interests called for increased protection from foreign imports, but a growing number of southerners believed that high protective tariffs, which raised the cost of imported goods and reduced the flow of international trade, were the root of their troubles. Many people clamored for a reduction in the cost of government and pressed for sharp reductions in federal and state budgets. Others, particularly in the South and West, blamed the panic on the nation's banks and particularly the tight-money policies of the Bank of the United States. A congressional committee's proposal to terminate the nearly insolvent Bank of the United States had little backing — because 40 members of Congress held stock in the bank.

This mistrust of corporations was aggravated by landmark decisions handed down in 1819 by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall. In Dartmouth College v. Woodward, the Supreme Court protected private corporations against interference by the state governments that had created them. In McCullough v. Maryland, it ruled that the Bank of the United States, though privately run, was a creation of the federal government that could not be touched by the states.

These pro-capitalist court rulings aggravated class divisions, which escalated over the next decade. The 1820s saw the meteoric rise of Andrew Jackson, who defended working-class Americans against what he characterized as the oppression of a wealthy elite epitomized by the central bank.

The recession, which was blamed largely on bankers, was one of the economic forces that made many Americans look to Andrew Jackson as the savior of the working class.

By 1823 the panic was over. But it left a lasting imprint on American politics. The panic led to demands for the democratization of state constitutions, an end to restrictions on voting and office holding, and heightened hostility toward banks and other "privileged" corporations and monopolies. The panic also exacerbated tensions within the Republican Party and aggravated sectional tensions as northerners pressed for higher tariffs while southerners abandoned their support of nationalistic economic programs.

How the Automobile became King in Chicago.

Almost as soon as automobiles appeared on the streets of Chicago, people wondered whether driving induced insanity.

A Catholic priest on the South Side called it "auto madness." A Tribune headline asked: "Is the Automobile Mania a Form of Insanity?" And Mayor Carter Harrison Jr. remarked, "The natural tendency of a man operating an automobile is to run it at high speed."

Horseless carriages showed up in Chicago as early as 1892. The city hosted the nation's first auto race in 1895 — only two of the seven cars even made it to the finish line, with the winner puttering along at 5 mph. [1]

Just a handful of wealthy Chicagoans were driving automobiles around 1899 when the streets were filled with horse-drawn vehicles, streetcars, pedestrians, and bicycles.

Today, cars are the unchallenged kings of the road, but around the turn of the 20th century, the debate was how much these newfangled contraptions should use the roads. A bicycle-loving mayor threatened to crack down on the up-and-coming motorcar.

Chicago was one of the first big cities to pass laws regulating autos, setting the speed limit at 8-mph in 1899. If you wanted to drive, you had to go in front of the Board of Examiners of Operators of Automobiles. These three city officials decided whether you had sufficient "physical ability, mental qualifications, and the ability to understand the working parts of the mechanism." The same board could revoke your license if you showed "carelessness" or "intemperance" behind the wheel.

Built as the "Palace of Fine Arts" for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. After the Fair was over, it housed the "Columbian Museum," with relics from the World's Fair, which evolved into the "Field Museum of Natural History." When the Field Museum moved to a new building closer to downtown in 1920, and the site sat vacant for over 10 years. The building was selected as the site for a new science museum. The "Museum of Science and Industry" opened in time for the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair. Photograph circa 1905.

At first, the city did not put an age limit on drivers. Examiners were "astounded" in September 1900 when 13-year-old Janette Lindstrom applied for a license, and the bright North Sider aced the test and got her license. "Chicago has probably the youngest licensed automobile operator in the world," the Tribune observed. The story of Janette Lindstrom captured the interest of many early automobile owners in Chicago in 1900 when she won some auto races in Washington Park Race Track.[2]

As motorists drove across the city, they were confronted with a patchwork of jurisdictions. Chicago had three major park districts at the time, each covering a separate portion of the city, and each had its own automobile laws. In addition, the city's police monitored the traffic on other streets. One park board tried to ban autos from South Side parks and boulevards in 1899, but motorists drove through them anyway, ringing their gongs as they buzzed past the "sparrow cops," the nickname for the park district's patrolmen.

In 1900, North Siders began hearing "strangely weird and beautiful music" coming from the streets outside their homes in the middle of the night. A few motorists were holding "automatic midnight musical parties," going for rides with friends and playing music boxes as they sped down the empty streets, the Tribune reported.

A 12-Tune Cylinder Music Box, circa 1900.

A less charming noise was more common: the ringing of bells and gongs. A city ordinance required motorists to sound these alarms to warn pedestrians and other vehicles as they approached, but some drivers seemed to delight in scaring people.

"The other day on one of the North Side boulevards, I heard a toot that seemed right behind me," Mayor Harrison remarked in 1902. "I jumped about six feet and then looked around. The machine was fully a half-block away, and when it went past, all the occupants grinned as if it were a good joke. These fellows blow their horns just to see the people jump, I believe."

Chicagoans called automobiles "buzz wagons" and "devil wagons." Reckless drivers were "scorchers," a word that originally described speeding bicyclists in the 1890s. "Auto Scorchers are a Terror," the Tribune declared in 1902 — at a time when about 800 people in a city of 1.7 million had automobile licenses.

The mayor, an avid bicyclist, threatened to crack down on motorists. "There are several young fools, who have more money than brains, who are running these automobiles over the boulevards at express time speed, and they are going to get into trouble," Harrison said.

Automobilists said the criticism was unfair.

"We are treated like a lot of hoodlums," said Frank P. Illsley, a member of the elite Chicago Automobile Club. "We can't ride through the park, but one of the sparrow cops comes after us and waves his hand to tell us we should slow up. Ten years or more ago, everybody had it in for the bicycle riders. Now they are against the auto owners."

1903 Chicago Automobile ID Badge.

In those early years, the police didn't have any motor vehicles of their own to chase after speeding cars. And they had no easy way of identifying motorists or automobiles. In 1901, the city required motorists to wear metal badges displaying their license numbers. And then, a hit-and-run accident injured a park police officer in December 1902, spurring the City Council to require identification numbers on autos.

"You might as well insist that every man in Chicago should wear a number," complained Chicago Automobile Club President Charles Gray. "You wait until you catch a thief before you number him. You want to number us like convicts. When we do wrong, let the police catch us."

A motorist sued, saying he had a constitutional right to drive his car on the public streets, and in 1904 an Illinois appellate court said he was right.

Despite the ruling, the City Council approved a new ordinance spelling out more details on what it took to qualify for a license. You had to be at least 18, with "the free and full use of both arms and both hands." You had to have good hearing and eyesight and be free from epilepsy, heart disease, alcoholism, and drug addiction. "Applicants must be not of reckless disposition nor subject to fainting fits," the law noted.

The Chicago Automobile Club fought the law, and a judge blocked the city from arresting club members for driving without identification numbers on their vehicles. But in 1905, an appellate court threw out those injunctions, clearing the way for the city to enforce its laws.

By that time, motorists flocked to Sheridan Road, using the suburban thoroughfare for outings through the North Shore. Police in Evanston and Glencoe used stopwatches to figure out how fast they were going. Evanston police Officer Arthur Johnston fired a revolver at one speeding car, puncturing a tire. "Those people were lawbreakers, and Johnston had a perfect right to do what he did," Evanston police Chief Alfred Frost said.

After Glencoe installed a speed bump on Sheridan, about 100 people gathered and cheered as cars were jolted by the unexpected obstacle. One chauffeur was thrown out of a car as it hit the hurdle. "There's nothing too bad for these pirates up here," fumed the auto's owner, George Rust of Highland Park.

The confusion over the multiple jurisdictions started to clear up in 1907 when Illinois began registering autos and issuing statewide license plates. Chicago continued requiring its own city license until the Illinois Supreme Court stopped the practice seven years later.

1907 Illinois License Plate.

Chicago's first "auto court" began hearing cases on June 5, 1912. Municipal Judge Hugh Stewart predicted that tough enforcement would bring a swift end to dangerous driving. "There will be no automobile or motorcycle speeding in Chicago at the end of 30 days," he said. "There have been too many deaths in Chicago lately from cases of this kind, and we are determined to put a stop to such disregard for life."

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] It wasn't long after the 1895 Jackson Park to Evanston motor race that automobile dealers began appearing on the Chicago scene. Until the first few years of the 1900s, most were also manufacturers who sold the cars they built in their own garages.

By 1902, when 1,500 Ramblers and 2,500 Oldsmobiles sold nationwide, dealers had begun springing up to sell cars made by the first major manufacturers. Believed to be the first car dealer; Hagmann & Hammerly Locomobile dealership at 931 Van Buren St., Chicago, existed before 1905, and today, would be considered a Car Broker.

[2] Miss Janette Lindstrom was the daughter of Swedish-born Charles Lindstrom, a trained engineer, and his wife Augusta, who came to Chicago in 1894 in a quest to get involved in the automotive industry. Here he met and formed a partnership with John Hewitt, and they created the Hewitt-Lindstrom Company (1900-1901), located at 347 N. Wabash, to produce a Stanhope style electric vehicle. Prior to the 1900s, almost all automobiles were electric, often with two motors, one for the front wheels and one for the back wheels.

Early in 1900, Charles taught his 13-year-old daughter Janette how to drive. He took her to get her driver's license. It was the first year the City of Chicago had examinations to procure a driver's license. The test was administered by E.R. Ellicott, a Chicago electrician who was a written exam with no on-the-road test.

She passed with flying colors, and Ellicott noted that her father had personally taught Janette to drive and that she already had three months of driving experience.

On Friday, September 21, 1900, Janette participated in the Inter Ocean International Automobile Exhibit and Races at Washington Park Race Track. Miss Janette Lindstrom beat Miss M.A. Ryan in the Ladies' two-mile race for private owners and operators; Janette wins the gold medal in 7:12 minutes, an average of 16.85 miles per hour.

A Hewitt-Lindstrom Company Style Automobile Used by Janette Lindstrom.

Miss Ryan claims that the firm to whom she left the order of recharging the batteries did not fill them to their capacity. Consequently, Miss Ryan has challenged Miss Lindstrom for another race set for Saturday the 22nd.

CLICK AD FOR A FULL-SIZE VIEW
Inter Ocean Newspaper Ad - Extra Races, Saturday, September 22, 1900.

Miss Lindstrom has accepted. Management declared that in running the race over again, any other woman with an electric automobile must be admitted.

In the special Ladies' 2-mile rematch race on Saturday, Miss Janette came in 2nd place, with Miss Ryan winning 1st place in 6 minutes and 43 seconds, an average of 18.66 miles per hour. She was driving a Hewitt-Lindstrom vehicle too.

Last but not least, the Five-Mile ladies 'free for all (any type of vehicle) race was won by Janette Lindstrom, wearing a straw hat with flowers, with a time of 12 minutes and 42 seconds, an average of 23.62 miles per hour.

NOTE: Janette's name is misspelled online as Jeannette or Jeanette. The auto race dates are also incorrect online showing 1901 as the year.

The Beginning of Chicago's Horse Railways.

THE CHICAGO CITY RAILWAY COMPANY 
The first ordinance regarding horse-railways was passed March 4, 1856, and granted to Roswell B. Mason and Charles B. Phillips the privilege of laying a track or tracks from the corner of State and Randolph Streets, down State to the southern city limits at Twelfth Street, and from the corner of Dearborn Street and Kinzie, and the corner of Kinzie and Franklin Streets, to the northern city limits at North Avenue. There were various connecting sections. The principal one is the line extending from the corner of State Street and Archer Avenue, down Archer to Twelfth Street.

Colonel Mason was at this time actively engaged in the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad and therefore left the prosecution of the horse-railway enterprise principally to Mr. Phillips. A short section of track was laid on the North Side as legal compliance with the ordinance. The Panic of 1857, and the preceding and succeeding instability of business, made this first “enterprise" a very dead one indeed. Colonel Mason sold out his interest, for a nominal sum, to his associate, Mr. Phillips, who afterward unavailingly sought to establish the validity of a title by legal proceedings.

Matters lay dormant until August 16, 1858, when the Common Council passed an ordinance granting permission to Henry Fuller, Franklin Parmelee, and Liberty Bigelow to lay tracks on State Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, on Archer Avenue and on Madison Street, to the city limits. It was required that the construction of one of these lines should be commenced on or before November 1, 1858; that the State Street line should be completed to Ringgold Place (Twenty-second Street; now Cermak Road), by October 15, 1859; the Madison Street line by October 15, 1860; and the Cottage Grove Avenue line by January 1, 1861. The ground was broken for the State Street line on November 1, 1858, in front of Garrett Block near Randolph Street. As a portion of the appropriate ceremonies which there took place, Henry Fuller wielded the spade, and ex-Governor Bross drove the first spike. A section of track was first laid between Randolph and Madison Streets, and two cars that had been brought from Troy, N.Y., were placed on this brief initial line and run back and forth, greatly to the amusement of the people. There were not lacking, however, property owners on State Street, who did not join in this good-natured greeting, but were preparing to fight the enterprise. Its projectors obtained from the Legislature a confirmation of their rights by an act, approved February 14, 1859, which incorporated Franklin Parmelee, Liberty Bigelow, Henry Fuller, and David A. Gage, in the order named, as the “Chicago City Railway Company,” for a term of twenty-five years, to operate street lines “within the present or future limits of the South and West divisions.” 

Section 8 of this act recited that “Nothing herein contained shall authorize the construction of more than a single track with the necessary turnouts, which shall only be at street crossings upon State Street between Madison and Twelfth Streets, by the consent of the owners of two-thirds of the property, in lineal measurement, lying upon said State Street between Madison and Twelfth.” State Street to Twelfth beyond which the city limits had but recently been moved southward—was then a busy thoroughfare in the transformation from residence to business property, and the feeling of opposition to the railway, among many property owners, was such that their consent had to be bought on private terms. Harmony is restored, the line was opened to Twelfth Street on April 25, 1859. State Street was then paved with Chicago Street Paver Bricks to Twelfth, and beyond was a Plank Road to the Cottage Grove suburb, better known as Camp Douglas and the scene of stirring war incidents. The entire line, from Randolph Street south, as first laid, was a single track, with turnouts at street crossings.

CLICK TO VIEW THE MAP IN FULL-SIZE
This map shows the lines of road given to horse railway companies within the city limits. The dotted lines are section divisions. The whole plat of the city is shown from east to west. Half a section is cut off from both the north and south ends of the city. June of 1856.

Of the projectors of this second and successful street railway enterprise, Messrs. Parmelee, Bigelow, and Gage constituted the firm of F. Parmelee & Co., owning street omnibuses and depot transfer wagons, and Mr. Fuller was a large owner of real estate. Street travel in Chicago was then a thing of frustration to man and weariness for animals. 

Even a brick-paved street like State Street had little to boast of, and the most aristocratic plank road was too often a delusion and a snare. Street railways were thus already a public necessity and were certain to become more and more so. It is a reminder of those days, however, and has been true of many an enterprise of greater moment, that stock subscriptions to the Chicago City Railway Company did not open with a rush in 1859, and as human nature repeats itself so that peoples rights to stock subscription were claimed by some who had at first refused to buy in.

On the 25th of April, 1859, as stated, cars were running along State Street to Twelfth Street and in June to the city limits. By May 1, a single track had been completed from Madison to Twenty-second Street (Cermak Street), on State, and two horse cars were run every twelve minutes. In the summer, the track was extended, from Twenty-second Street and Cottage Grove Avenue to Thirty-first Street, and, by fall, cars were running every six minutes as far as Twenty-second Street. A state fair was to be held at Cottage Grove in the autumn of 1859, and in order to be ready for it, the company spiked down the rails on the planking as it lay.

An ordinance of the City Council, passed May 23, 1859, specified additional Streets on which lines might be laid in the West and South divisions, on Lake, Randolph, and Van Buren Streets, in the South and West, and on Milwaukee and Blue Island Avenues in the West. This ordinance prescribed the time when each of these lines should be commenced and opened. Still, as Clark Street was then occupied by the Michigan Southern Railroad below Harrison Street, and property owners were themselves fighting for a thoroughfare, it was agreed that the street railway company should defer action, to Clark Street, for ten years. In pursuance of that purpose, an ordinance of the Council, February 13, 1860, extended the rights of the company in that thoroughfare to cover the proposed period of delay. The Madison Street line, built under the original charter, was opened to Halsted Street on May 20, 1859, and reached Robey Street (Damen Avenue) on August 8 of the same year. The Randolph Street line began to come into use on July 15, 1859. Meanwhile, the State Street line was not neglected.

In 1861, the financial medium was first vitiated. The daily varying quotations of “stump tail " made its possessors often glad to be rid of it on any terms. The city railway company was, of necessity, made the recipient of much of this poor paper. Up to this time, the company had not issued “punch tickets” for fares, and so long as silver change held out, it had not thought of doing so. When, however, silver disappeared, and recourse was had to postage stamps as the readiest expedient, the Chicago City Railroad Company may be said to have come to the rescue of the people. 

Their earliest issue of tickets hastily flung from a job press and as hastily stamped were hailed as a public boon. An uncancelled twelve-ride ticket was good in the city or vicinity and unquestioned for its face value of 50¢ ($14.50 today or $1.21 per fare). 

It would pass in almost any transaction, indeed, anywhere in preference to a greasy little envelope of postage stamps that were certain to be damaged if they were not short in the count. It is even related that church contributions brought in no small store of them. Though redeemable only in rides, so much were they in demand as a circulating medium that they were counterfeited, and it is a tradition that known counterfeits have been unhesitatingly accepted in trade. This issue of what may be called “the emergency tickets of 1861" amounted to about $150,000 ($4,324,850 today). Because of counterfeits they were, as soon as possible, called in for redemption for other tickets of more elaborate preparation. 

The second issue was readily divisible into denominations of twenty-five, fifteen and ten cents to the greater convenience of the people. Until the postal currency of the United States came into circulation in the summer of 1862, the issues of the Chicago City Railway were the most acceptable small change Chicago had or could furnish. Long after their use as currency had ceased, Mr. Fuller, the treasurer, continued to receive these tickets by letter from distant points. Many have doubtless been retained as souvenirs of an eventful time.

In 1863, a comprehensive scheme was carried through the Legislature, under the title of the “Wabash Railway Company,” which gave to the incorporators— Thomas Harless, Horace A. Hurlbut, and Charles Hitchcock, and to their associates, etc.—the right to occupy Wabash Avenue and Michigan Boulevard, and other principal streets in all directions from the center, and to extend their lines into indefinite suburbs. The act passed the Senate on January 22. Being reported by a senator from southern Illinois and was read only by its title, it went through under a misapprehension. The Legislature took a recess from February 14 to June 2, and upon its reassembling, the fact for the first time dawned upon Chicago that a vast franchise was hidden under a misleading title. The bill passed the House on June 8, and not until then were its provisions publicly known. It was at a time of intense excitement, in a critical period of the war, and the Legislature was not in harmony with the administration on war measures. On Wednesday, June 10, Governor Yates prorogued the two houses, and the incident was perhaps the most exciting ever known in the legislative history of the State. The Tribune of June 11 said:

“We were to have seen a peace commission instituted, peace measures set on foot, and a deep and deadly stab inflicted upon the loyal history of our State. But huge above all, the roc's egg of this whole affair, looms up the Wabash Horse Railroad swindle.”

A public meeting in Metropolitan Hall on the evening of June 11 endorsed the Governor's action and denounced the Wabash bill. The Common Council, by resolution, requested the Governor to veto it. The veto, dated June 19, says:

“The fact that over three months intervened between its passage in the Senate and in the House, and that during this long interval, the citizens of Chicago were not even apprised of its existence, is evidence that those having control of it were unwilling to have it submitted to the test of public scrutiny."

The Chicago City Railway Company continued to extend its line in the South Division. During the month of October 1864, a branch track was laid upon Archer Road from State Street to Stewart Avenue and completed to Bridgeport during the ensuing year. At the end of 1869, the company was operating seventeen and one-quarter miles of track.

In the early part of 1871, the running timetable was as follows: “Cars leave corner State and Randolph Streets, via State, to Twenty-second Street, every minute, and to Cottage Grove Avenue and Douglas Place (35th Street) every four minutes; leave southern limits every four minutes for Twenty-second, Twenty-second every minute, and Archer Road every eight minutes for the corner of State and Randolph Streets.” 

Indiana Street Horse Car, circa 1880.

THE NORTH CHICAGO STREET RAILROAD COMPANY
The same act of the Legislature of February 14, 1859, which incorporated the Chicago City Railway Company, conferred like immunities and privileges upon William B. Ogden, John B. Turner, Charles V. Dyer, James H. Rees, and Voluntine C. Turner, by the name of the North Chicago Street Railroad Company, for the North Division of the city of Chicago.

1. On Clark Street, from North Water Street to Green Bay Road, and then to present and future city limits.
2. From Clark Street west, on Division, to Clybourn Avenue, and thence on Clybourn Avenue to city limits. 
3. From Clark Street east, on Michigan, to Rush, thence north on Rush to Chicago Avenue. 
4. Commencing on Wells Street at North Water, thence north to Division Street, west to Sedgwick and north on Sedgwick to Green Bay Road (Clark Street).
5. West on Chicago Avenue, from Rush Street to the North Branch of the Chicago River.

At this time, Clark Street was planked, and the first railway was laid, by spiking the rails to the planks, an additional thickness of plank being placed in the horse path. The track was laid double to Division Street; beyond that, a single track to Fullerton Avenue. Eaton, Gilbert & Co., of Troy, N. Y., furnished the first Car.

The North Chicago Street Railway Company, Car № 8, built in 1859.

The Clark Street line to city limits, the Clybourn Avenue, and the Chicago Avenue lines were completed in 1859, the Sedgwick Street line in 1861, and a line to Graceland, with a steam dummy, in 1864. The Michigan Boulevard and Rush Street lines were never built, and the rights thereon were forfeited.

A North Chicago Street Railway two-horse streetcar traveling along Fullerton Avenue to its destination at Fullerton/Halsted.

In 1864, the company was authorized to connect its tracks with those of the Chicago City Railway, thereby making continuous lines of horse railway between the different divisions of the city. 

The same year, also, permission was granted to lay a single or double track on Larrabee Street, from Chicago Avenue to Little Fort Road (Lincoln Avenue) and on Little Fort Road to present or future city limits. This branch was completed the same year. The lines were gradually extended on the streets and in the directions specified until, in 1871, the company was operating about twelve miles of road.

By the time of the Great Chicago Fire, the company lost $350,000 ($7,569,300 today), their stables, rolling stock and tracks being entirely consumed. Their vigorous and energetic recovery from the great disaster and the complete rehabilitation of their system will be recounted in the third volume of this history.

VOLUNTINE C. TURNER, president of the North Division Horse Railway Company, was born in Malta, Saratoga Co., N.Y., February 25, 1823. Previous to preparing for college, he received a good primary education, and also was employed by his father, while engaged upon the construction of the Erie Railroad and the Genesee Valley Canal. Young Turner prepared for college at the Troy and Oxford academies, New York, graduating at Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., in the year 1840. In the fall, he moved to Chicago and soon afterward commenced the practice of law, which he continued for a period of twelve years. From 1848 to 1858, he was in partnership with A. Clarke, and from that year until 1860, with the exception of a short time, during which he was in partnership with B. F. Ayer, Mr. Turner engaged alone in the general practice of his profession. In February 1859, he first became connected with the North Side Railway Company, as its secretary and treasurer, continuing thus to act until July. 1865. From that date until January 1867, he was vice-president of the company and has been president from that time up to date. During all this period, he has been general manager of the road—in fact, is its active and untiring superintendent, and confining himself to the upbuilding of its interests. He has never held a public office, and never aspired to one. Mr. Turner was married to Eliza Smith, daughter of Colonel Henry Smith, the old partner of William B. Ogden, on the 20th of May, 1851. For twenty-five years they were prominent members of the St. James (Episcopal) Church. At present, however, they are members of Professor Swing's congregation.

THE CHICAGO WEST DIVISION RAILWAY COMPANY
On the 21st of February, 1861, the Legislature of Illinois enacted, that Edward P. Ward, William K. McAllister, Samuel B. Walker, James L. Wilson, Charles B. Brown, Nathaniel P. Wilder, and their successors, be created and constituted a body corporate and politic, by the name of “The Chicago West Division Railway Company,” for the term of twenty-five years.

A Chicago West Division Railway Brass Horse Car Bell.
It's marked C W DIV RY on the outside edge and
still retains some of its original green paint.

This company was authorized to acquire any of the powers, franchises, privileges, or immunities conferred upon the Chicago City Railway Company by the act of February 14, 1859, as may by contract between the said railway corporations be agreed upon. Nothing seems to have been done by this company, under their charter, until the summer of 1863. At that time, the gentlemen composing the company sold out their stock to J. Russell Jones, John C. Haines, Jerome Beecher, W. H. Bradley, Parnell Munson, and William H. Ovington of Chicago, and E. B. Washburne, Nathan Corwith, and Benjamin Campbell, of Galena. The new company was organized with J. Russell Jones as president and superintendent and William H. Ovington as secretary and treasurer.

On the 30th of July, 1863, a sale was made to this company by the Chicago City Railway, of their road and franchises in the West Division, for the sum of $200,000 ($4,209,500 today), cash. The deed of transfer was dated the 1st of August, 1863, and had a border of United States revenue stamps amounting to $580.

The tracks laid at that time were on Randolph and Madison Streets, extending to Union Park.

The new company entered vigorously upon the work of extending the lines. A track was laid upon Blue Island Avenue, and cars were running to Twelfth Street by December 22, 1863. In June 1864, the Milwaukee line was opened, and in October, the Clinton and Jefferson Street lines. 

Chicago City Railway Company Two-Horse Car № 3 on Milwaukee Avenue.

Year after year, the lines were extended until, in 1871, the company owned and operated over twenty miles of track. By the charters of February 14, 1859, and February 21, 1861, passed by the Legislature, incorporating the foregoing horse railway companies, the franchises and privileges were granted for a term of twenty-five years. On the 6th of February, 1865, the legislature passed, over the Governor's veto, an act amending the charters with respect to time and granting terms of ninety-nine years instead of twenty-five.

J. Russell Jones, president of the Chicago West Division Railway Company, is descended from an old and noted English family. Colonel John Jones, one of his ancestors, married the second sister of Oliver Cromwell, in 1623, and was put to death October 17, 1660, upon the restoration of Charles the II. The son, Honorable William Jones, came to this country with his father-in-law, Honorable Theophilus Eaton, first Governor of the colony of New Haven and Connecticut. Mr. Jones acted as deputy governor for years and died on October 17, 1706. Samuel, the grandfather of J. Russell Jones, was an officer under George II., and served with credit in the French and Indian and the Revolutionary wars. His parents were Joel and Maria (Dart) Jones, J. Russell being the youngest of four children. He was born at Conneaut, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, February 17, 1823. When he was thirteen years of age, his mother, who had been left a widow, moved to Rockton, Winnebago Co., Ill. The young boy was left at home to support himself, and when, in 1838, he announced his determination to join the family in the Far West, he had so established himself in the confidence and love of the community, that the members of the Conneaut Presbyterian Church offered to educate him for the ministry if he would remain with them. But even at this early age, to determine was to act, and he accordingly took passage for Illinois, in the schooner “J. G. King,” and arrived at Chicago August 19, 1838.

After some difficulty, he reached his new home in Winnebago County, where he faithfully assisted his family for about two years. In June 1840, with one dollar in his pocket, but with a hardy constitution and an iron will, he moved to Galena. First going into a retail store, he soon after went into the employ of Benjamin H. Campbell, a leading merchant of that flourishing town, and subsequently became a partner in the firm. Until 1856, the business transacted was on a scale commensurate with the importance of Galena as the leading commercial emporium of the Northwest. The partnership was then dissolved. Ten years previous to this date, Mr. Jones had been appointed secretary and treasurer of the Galena and Minnesota Packet Company, which position he retained until 1861. In 1860, he was elected to represent Jo Daviess and Carroll counties in the Twenty-second General Assembly, and the next year was appointed United States Marshal for the Northern District of Illinois, commencing his term of service in April.

In the fall of that year, he moved to Chicago, and, in 1863, organized and was elected president of the Chicago West Division Railway Company, retaining that position until June 1869, when he was appointed minister to Belgium by President Grant. He was also re-appointed United States Marshal in 1865. Upon his return from abroad, in 1875, he has tendered the position of Secretary of the Interior, but declined and was appointed Collector of the Port of Chicago, and was again elected president of the Railway Company, which position he now holds. Mr. Jones was married, in 18 48, to Elizabeth Ann, daughter of the late Judge Andrew Scott, of Arkansas. They have had three sons and three daughters.

ADDITIONAL READING: Plank Road History in the Chicago Area.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.