Found on the pages of The Chicago
Tribune, these are just some of the events that
occurred on this date as the city grew . . .
March 29, 1880
In a lecture at the Franklin Scientific Society
in Philadelphia, Professor George F. Barker, M. D., a professor of Physics at
the University of Pennsylvania, delivered his observations of Thomas Alva
Edison’s electric light in its latest form. “I know all other generators, and Edison’s is best of all. With a resistance of only one ohm he
gets 165 units of energy. The
theory upon which it is built is exactly the reverse of previous inventions of
electrical generators. Edison aims
at low resistance, but high motive force.”
 |
| (JWB, 2007) |
Dr. Barker spoke in an auditorium that was lit
by seven incandescent lamps. In a
complicated series of experiments conducted at Menlo Park the professor
determined that one could operate three electric lamps for the same cost as one
gas-burner light. “Until gas can
be furnished for 60 cents per 1,000 cubic feet the electric light is cheaper,”
Dr. Barker stated.
When Mr. Edison learned of the calculations and
the ultimate determination, he told Dr. Barker, “If that be so, man is absolute
master of Nature . . . Electricity is light and heat. We have only to place our engines at the coal mines and
transmit the heat and light wherever it is needed.”
* * *
* *
The Ute Indians arrived at the Grand Pacific
Hotel on the corner of LaSalle Street and Jackson this day after negotiating in
Washington about ceding their reservation in Colorado to the government. The entire party, including the agents
for the Utes, numbered 22 persons.
The Tribune described the scene in this way, “When they passed through
Chicago on their way to Washington they were attired in the mixed garb of the
Indians and the whites, a soft hat and blue or red shirt being conspicuous, with
occasionally a vest. This time
they return in all the glory of slop-shop garb . . . The average Indian doesn’t
take kindly to civilized habillments, but the Utes do. They glory in an ill-fitting frock-coat
and pants, and vest. And their
white shirts swell them with pride.”
The delegation had been summoned to Washington,
D. C. as a direct result of the “White River Massacre” that had occurred just a
year before. In the battle Major
Thomas T. Thornburgh and 13 soldiers were killed as they advanced across the
White River into Ute land, in violation of assurances that the Utes had received that
soldiers would not encroach upon their territory. A separate band of Utes attacked the White River Agency and
killed ten employees and Nathan Meeker, the overseer. Three women and two children were also taken hostage.
 |
| (JWB, 2010) |
Reaction was immediate and hostile until
Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz (Recognize that name? There’s a beautiful high school in
Chicago named after him.) interceded and stopped the movement of troops against
the Utes until the hostages could be released. A treaty was finally negotiated, which included reparations
to the Meeker family, a payment to the Utes, and the removal of the White River
Utes to Uintah Reservation in Utah.
History is amazing, and it’s often tough to
find congruency in events. But it
always startles me to realize that just five years before William LeBaron
Jenney saw his Home Insurance Building finished on LaSalle Street, the cavalry,
homesteaders, and Native Americans were still battling it out on the western
plains.
March 29, 1897
If it’s in the paper it must be true. On this date The Tribune reported that
Christopher Bettarie, a butcher, residing at No. 29 Emerson avenue, was
attacked by his blooded St. Bernard dog on the previous day. His wife came to his rescue with a
revolver and began the work of trying to kill the dog. “The first bullet fired struck her
husband instead of the animal and made a bad wound in his left hip . . . The
report of the revolver, which was fired from but a few feet away, enraged the
dog still more. Battarie and his
wife both belabored it with their fists, but it retained its grip on its
master’s arm.”
Mr. Batterie was in a fix, so it seemed. The dog wouldn’t let go of his arm, and
he understandably refused to allow his wife to fire another slug toward him. Finally, neighbors heard the ruckus and
intervened, rescuing the butcher who had badly lacerated arm and a bullet in
his rear.
Arriving at the scene of the mayhem, the police
arrested Mrs. Battarie, believing the shooting to be intentional. At the station, though, she was able to
prove her innocence. Mr. Battarie
was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where it was believed he would make a
recovery, barring the onset of blood poisoning.
* * *
* *
Chicago’s foremost citizens gathered at the
Commercial Club of Chicago to hear Daniel H. Burnham outline his plan for the
lake-front park system. Virtually
everyone in attendance was in favor of the system that would unite the north
and south parks into a continuous band of green along the lake. The only objection was to the selling
of frontage along the lakeside for residences. This was a legal issue as the South Park Commission had not
legal authority to conduct real estate transactions of this sort.
 |
| (JWB, 2009) |
Phillip Danforth Armour stated after the
meeting, “The park will be an excellent thing for Chicago. I believe Burnham’s plan is entirely
satisfactory, and there are many advantages to be obtained from such a scheme .
. . I think Mr. Burnham well qualified to arrange the details of such an
immense park scheme.”
Robert Todd Lincoln, the first-born son of
Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, added, “I certainly should favor
connecting the North and South park systems. The greatest expense connected with making this connection
would be that of bridging or tunneling the mouth of the Chicago River. It would seem to me a raised bridge
would be necessary. That would be
a big item of expense. The
riparian rights could be obtained, I believe, if it was agreed that no buildings
should be erected on this park property.
I believe eventually we will see the Lake-Front Park idea practically
adopted.”
Harlow N. Higginbotham, who served as President
of the 1893 Century of Progress World’s Fair, stated, “From Park row to Jackson
Park the made land ought all to be devoted to park purposes, with drives,
trees, a lagoon, walks and fountains, statuary, and everything that would make
it a pleasant place. North of Park
row there ought to be a wide driveway and the Field Museum, a public library
and the armory might be conveniently located in this strip.”
Frank Orren Lowden, who would go on to serve as
the Governor of Illinois from 1917 to 1921, said, “We who have lived so near
the lake have not thought of the esthetic development of the water frontage and
the natural beauty which is lying dormant there. I remember that when Lord Coleridge returned from a trip to
this country, in speaking of Chicago and the lakes he said that the thing which
struck him most was the indifference of the city toward the beauties of the
lakefront. I think we are
awakening to a realizing sense of
the truth of his criticism. Mr.
Burnham’s scheme is an ideal plan, and it seems to me as practical as the
World’s Fair would have been two years before we realized the gigantic nature
of the World’s Fair scheme. Such
colossal enterprises cannot be grasped in a moment. Specialists might arrange some of the details differently,
but the plan itself strikes me as an ideal one.”
* * *
* *
In the ongoing labor wars it was announced that
the tanners of Chicago had once again gone on strike. Despite the work of the newly created State Board of
Arbitration, talks broke down, meetings were held, and “the men were full of
fight and ready to go out in a body today.”
The union’s central issue, just as it had been
during the labor unrest that led to the Haymarket disturbance 13 years earlier,
was an increase in working hours.
Employers planned on instituting a ten-hour work day within the week
while the workers were asking for a nine-hour day, paid at the ten-hour
rate. It was estimated that 500
men would strike on this day with another 1,500 more walking out on the next.
Companies were standing firm with one large
firm deducting 20 dollars from each worker’s wages, a sum that would be
forfeited if there were a strike.
* * *
* *
The United States battleship Iowa left Cramp’s
shipyard in Philadelphia for its official trial voyage before heading to the Brooklyn
Navy Yard where it would be placed in dry dock and given a coat of fresh
paint. The new battleship was
expected to become “the most powerful fighting machine in the new navy.”
Its main battery of four 12-inch, eight 8-inch
and six 4-inch guns was complemented by 20 6-pounders and six 1-pounder rapid
firing guns and two Gatling guns.
Its side armor varied in thickness from three to 14 inches with its
turrets protected by steel from 5 to 15 inches thick. With a displacement of 11,000 tons, it was expected to “in
every respect equal, and will probably outclass, the lastest type of English
battleships as represented by the Magnificent and Majestic.”
The new behemoth didn’t last long. After serving heroically in the
Spanish-American War and World War I, she was used for target practice and sunk
in 1923.
March 29, 1915
Racing to 508 Case Street, located in “a dingy
row of north side rooming houses,” James F. Bishop, the public administrator
for Cook County, found “an unprotected litter of unframed age-cracked canvases
reported to him as a veritable mine of old masters.”
 |
| Albrecht Durer-- Christ on the Cross |
The treasure trove belonged to Louis Hellman,
“septuagenarian recluse,” who died after a stroke. When the Cook County administrator left the deceased’s
apartment, he carried with him “paintings the value of which . . . was several
hundred thousands of dollars.
Among them was a lost Rembrandt—Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Another was Apollo and
the Muses, variously credited to Annibale Caracci and to
Rubens. Still another was a priceless
old drawing by Albrecht Durer—Christ on the Cross.
It appeared that Mr. Hellman was of a noble
German family and had come to the United States “after an unfortunate love
affair.” He had begun a career as
a seller of art but failed at his attempt because “he could not force himself
to part with the finest pictures that came into his hands.”
“I have come into this room a thousand times
before,” said one of Mr. Hellman’s few friends. “It always looked this same way, dirty and neglected, with
canvases stacked against the walls by the dozen. Hellman—Von Hellman he used to be—told me that the paintings he had kept for himself were the cream of something like 10,000 he had
handled.”
* * *
* *
March 29,1915
From the North Shore suburb of Highland Park
this day came another episode of carnage on the railroad tracks. Joseph Leuer, who owned a garage at 136
North First Street received a call from a motorist whose car had broken down
and sent his two sons, Frank, 27-years-old, and Louis, a 16-year-old, to tow the vehicle to the garage.
They hooked onto the car and sped west to Elm
Street toward the railroad tracks that ran parallel to St. John Avenue. A long line of empty passenger coaches
obscured the view of the tracks, and the gates at the crossing were open as the
tow truck approached.
The sound of the collision between train and
truck could be heard at the Leuer garage, which was only 150 feet away from the
crash. Mr. Leuer came running to
find his youngest son screaming for his legs to be amputated so he could be
extricated from the wreck. It was
15 minutes before he could be freed, and he died on his was to Lake Forest
Hospital.
An angry crowd gathered around Mike Tomi, the
towerman at the grade crossing, and he started to run down the track before he
was caught. “I rang the bell,” he
protested. “I range the bell! I couldn’t see the engine for the
smoke. It was not on schedule. I had no time to lower the gates, but
I rang the bell.”
“This thing has got to stop,” said Mayor Frank
P. Hawkins of Highland Park. “At
the very next meeting of the council I am going to see that drastic action is
taken to make the railroad protect life here.”
* * *
* *
Ten thousand people who attended the Moody
Church approved a plan for a city-wide revival campaign to be led by “Billy” Sunday. “It was the largest attendance in the
history of the Moody church,” said the Rev. E. Y. Woolley, the associate
pastor.
 |
| (JWB, 2011) |
The Rev. George L. Robinson, professor in
McCormick theological seminary, a long-time friend of Mr. Sunday’s, said, “Our
faculty expect to extend to Mr. Sunday a formal invitation to come here for a
revival campaign. I would almost
be willing to dismiss all the classes of the seminary in order to enable the
students to get the benefit of the meetings. Chicago is Mr. Sunday’s home city, and we need him here.”
The pastor of the Presbyterian Church of the
Covenant, Rev. W. S. Plumer Bryan, said, “It is said that Mr. Sunday received
$47,000 in Philadelphia. He won
more than 40,000 converts. This is
only a little more than one dollar a head for the converts. Suppose the ministers of Chicago were
all paid on the basis of the number of converts they gained. Some of them would have hard work in making
a living.”
“Chicago is a big city, but not too big for
God,” said the Rev. James E. Walker, chairman of the west side committee which
started the campaign.
March 29 1938
The will of Mrs. Kate Allerton Johnstone,
daughter of Samuel W. Allerton, an early Chicagoan who was one of the founders
of the First National Bank of Chicago, was entered into probate. Mrs. Johnstone’s estate came to about
$320,000, of which $200,000 was placed in trust for her only son, Vanderburgh
Johnstone of Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Two grandsons, a brother, and friends were also to receive gifts of
property and cash.
* * *
* *
Bad news for the White Sox as Luke Appling’s
fractured ankle was placed in a cast this morning and estimates of the star’s
recovery went from five weeks to three moths. X-rays revealed that Mr. Appling had broken both bones of
his lower right leg. Accompanied
by Chicago White Sox Vice-President Harry Grabiner, Appling was set to return
to Chicago at the end of the week.
Mr. Appling returned to action on June 18
against the Boston Red Sox. He
drew a walk. The great
shortstop went on to play in 82 games during the 1938 season, ending the year
with a .303 average.
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