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| The Nels T. Quales house at 1951 W. Schiller (JWB, 2011) |
Just south of
Wicker Park sits a home of red brick with a cyclone fence around it. Clearly 1951 West Schiller has seen
better days. Completed just two
years after the Chicago Fire of 1871 and enlarged in 1890, this was in its
early days the home of Nels T. Quales, a Norwegian who came to Chicago in 1856,
a man who accomplished enough to fill three lifetimes and whose work left an
impression on the city that remains to this day.
Quales was born on January 17 of 1831, the next-to-youngest of six children. His father, Tangiles, was a farmer of modest means near Hardanger in the fjord country of southern Norway. By the age of 26 the young Quales had entered the Royal Veterinary College of Copenhagen, where he spent nearly four years securing a degree in veterinary science.
In 1859 Quales made
his way to the United States, arriving in Chicago on July 6th of
that year. He went to work for a
railway company in the city, taking English language classes at night. In August of 1861 he enlisted in
Company B of the First Illinois artillery.
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| Quales house entrance (JWB, 2011) |
Now, why would a
Norwegian veterinarian, in the country for less than two years, enlist in a war
brought about solely by the institution of slavery? To answer that question, we have to put aside everything that
we today take for granted and imagine how important the concept of freedom was
to those who came to this country, a nation not even 80 years old at the time.
Remember that the
Statue of Liberty, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi’s great gift to the country on
behalf of the people of France, has Lady Liberty stepping out of a set of
broken chains. Those broken chains, the movement from powerlessness to freedom,
were significant. The United
States government and its great experiment in democracy was a shining beacon to
all those who yearned for liberty.
No doubt Quales was brought to enlist because he felt that call in the
core of his being.
The rest of his
life bears out that idea.
By 1863 Quales was
detached for service in General William Tecumseh Sherman’s headquarters. He was placed in charge of a large
veterinary hospital in Nashville, working in the post hospital at the same
time. In 1864 he was discharged,
at which point he returned to Chicago and entered Rush Meical College,
graduating in 1867. After a
competitive examination he was appointed house physician and surgeon of Cook
Country Hospital.
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| Dr, Quales's home sat just across Schiller from Wicker Park (JWB, 2011) |
At that point
things began to move quickly. The
new doctor became involved with the North Side Free Dispensary and in 1868 he
was appointed City Physician, holding that position for three years, adopting a
series of methods that allowed the city to control a fairly serious outbreak of
smallpox during that time.
It’s apparent that
Quales never forgot his own early attempts to find a place in a foreign
land. He served as physician to
the Scandinavian Immigrant Aid Society, served as a surgeon at the United
States Marine Hospital until it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871, and
after the fire was one of the physicians appointed by the Chicago Relief and
Aid Society to help relieve the suffering that took place after that horrific
event. This was a huge operation;
the society attended to the needs of some 157,000 individuals in the fire’s
aftermath.
There are at least
three important institutions that still remain which are directly attributable
to the leadership of Dr. Quales.
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| Wicker Park Lutheran Church (google images) |
First, the Wicker
Park Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed in 1879 with Dr. Quales acting as a
principal guiding force. Started
in an unfinished church building at 2112 West LeMoyne, the congregation
worshipped in English. In 1906 a
larger structure, built of stone, was begun. This church still stands in that location.
In 1896 the doctor
led the move to form the Norwegian Old Peoples’ Home Society in an effort to
create a residence for elderly Norwegians. A four-acre site was chosen in Norwood Park, just across
from the railroad station. The old
hotel on that site became the Norwood Park Home. Today the Norwood Park Home is Norwood Crossing, a facility of
over 200 residents that is open to all ethnic groups.
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| Groundbreaking for the Lutheran Deaconess Hospital |
Finally, Dr. Quales
was the principal leader in the formation of the Lutheran Deaconess Home and
Hospital, built on four lots at Haddon Avenue and Leavitt Street, just south of
Division and about five blocks south of the church. Dedication for the hospital was held on May 24, 1903. By 1910 a new wing brought the
hospital’s capacity to 100 beds.
In the early 1950’s
the Lutheran Church, recognizing that the physical plant at the hospital was
aging, purchased land in northwest Park Ridge, where today’s Lutheran General
Hospital stands. Both hospitals
operated until 1968 when the Chicago site was closed. Today Advocate Lutheran General Hospital has 645 beds, sees
over 1,000 people a week in its emergency rooms, and maintains the only
children’s hospital in the north and northwest suburbs.
Dr. Nels T. Quales,
veterinarian, Civil War enlistee, doctor, and founder of three institutions
that still stand today. A
Chicagoan, through and through.
It’s too bad his
former home couldn’t break the chains of that fence and tell
the story of the amazing man who made 1951 West Schiller his home.
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1 comment:
This home needs saving. Do you have any further information? I want to help.
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