ment of the city people as well as the farmers in the interior. To overcome this difficulty substantial "plank roads" were constructed in every direction at a cost of from $1,000 to $1,500 per mile and kept in repair by the tolls collected. Although this was but one and one-half cents per mile the roads paid dividends ranging from fifteen to forty per cent. annually." To add to the facility of communication with the back country, the Illinois and Michigan canal was opened for traffic in 1848, as was part of the Galena and Chicago Union railroad a year later. For a time it seemed as if these additional lines of transportation operated to the detriment of Chicago, especially in the retail trade for it tended to draw the retail dealers nearer to their customers. This loss, however, was rapidly supplanted by a gain in the wholesale trade,72 for around the city grew up many smaller settlements which looked to Chicago as their supply depot.

Of the thousands of acres of land sold at the Chicago Land Office during the decade 1841 to 1850 much was close to the city and little fell into the hands of speculators. This latter fact aided in the settlement of the vicinity. Of the small towns in the immediate neighborhood of the city, Jefferson was settled in 1830,73 Oak Park in 1833,74 Norwood Park in 1834,75 Blue Island in 1835,76 Evanston in 1836," Lake View in 184478 and Hyde Park in 1848.79 By 1845 there were in Cook county twenty-two settlements besides Chicago, and twelve of these claimed five hundred or more inhabitants each.80 The population of the entire county was 43,385 in 1850.81

The development of Chicago must be called wonderful rather than typical of the westward movement. During the early years of its existence, while it passed through the 'log cabin'

stage of development the growth may be safely called typical of the growth of the West. Slowly the settlers came at first and in the accounts of travelers can be found the incidents which prove the frontier characteristics of the village. The years of booming and speculation came during the period 1833-37; steam navigation upon the lakes made the village a port of importance; the land fever gave aid to an unnatural growth but Chicago still remained a village for the lack of substantial support. The financial revulsion of 1837 checked the growth of the town as well as the state but with the return of confidence in the early forties Chicago again came to life, this time to enjoy a steady growth in numbers and in prosperity and to take advantage of its location.

At this date it appears that no longer can Chicago be taken as a type of western frontier towns but from this time on one must look to physiographic conditions for an explanation of its wonderful growth. As yet railroads had not penetrated the great agricultural fields of the West, but there was nevertheless a demand for markets for produce and these markets were in the East. During the decade 1841 to 1850 the prairies of Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin were filling up rapidly and ever increasing fields of wheat, oats and corn ripened with each autumn. The increased number of settlers meant an increased demand for lumber and supplies of all kinds and Chicago, situated at the terminus of the great highway of communication with the East naturally attracted farmers by thousands, who came to exchange their farm products for the products of the East.

Chicago's growth was now substantial and normal because of its situation at the gateway of commerce. The great West, with its ever increasing wealth of agricultural products, was its storehouse; the East was its market and the city, being the favored point of collection and distribution, the connecting link between East and West, was destined to grow in wealth and power with the increasing demands of producer and consumer. Still greater possibilities were to open up when during the fifties the railroads were to radiate from the city to various points of the rich farming lands around the lakes, greatly increasing the area of influence of the rapidly growing metropolis. Primar

ily a commercial city, for a time, to commerce must be attributed the development, but soon manufactures grew up to add to wealth and industry and in this departure may be seen still another cause for growth.

Another point must next claim attention-the character of the population. Here also is seen the influence of transportation routes. The line of the Great Lakes was the connecting link between the West and the seaports of the Northwest and along this great highway came many foreigners, who, desirousof making their homes in the interior, took the easiest road thither and came to the best known port. The result is seen in the fact that one-third of Chicago's population was of foreign descent. Moreover, New Yorkers and New Englanders abounded in the city and vicinity, probably for the same reason.

In a word, it appears that Chicago is the result of physiographic influences, its favorable location allowing it to profit by the influences of the interaction of the agricultural West and the manufacturing East. Its location at the terminus of the great line of communication with the East, thus becoming both a distributing and a collecting point for an exceedingly wealthy back country gave it the permanent foundation upon which to build its industrial life.82

82 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, (9, 31) prints an article in 1843, discussing the claims to future greatness of the cities of the section. The writer offers evidence to show that it will lie on the Great Lakes rather than on the Ohio river, but he decides in favor of the location at the mouth of the Maumee, rather than Chicago. The article is of interest as showing the difficulty of contemporaneous estimate of the condition which produced Chicago's ascendency.

CHAPTER XI

FOREIGN ELEMENT IN THE POPULATION OF ILLINOIS

Immigration first assumed large proportions during the decade 1831-1840 and increased progressively during the next twenty years, being relatively greater in proportion to the native population than at any other period. Just what percentage of the immigrants to the United States found their way to the Mississippi valley is difficult to determine as the estimates of the writers vary considerably and census statistics are not available before 1850.2

In 1850 Illinois had a population of 851,500 and of this number 110,600 were foreigners.3 Owing to the fact that Illinois. was still a new state with an abundance of fertile land yet unclaimed in 1830, when European emigration began to become of some consequence, and that the state was situated at the terminus of the northern route of travel over the Great Lakes, it is natural to expect that it would have a considerable and varied foreign population and this is the case.

In selecting places for settlement there were decided preferences displayed by the various nationalities. The Germans, naturally, inclining towards agriculture were most frequently found in the agricultural districts; the Irish seem to have stayed. in the cities or to have served as laborers along the lines of communication although an example of agricultural pursuits

1 McLaughlin, The Immigrant, Past and Present, in The Popular Science Monthly, July, 1904, 225.

2 One writer says thata seventy-five of every hundred continental immigrants to the United States went west, but only twenty-five of every hundred Irish and English went west. (Walker, Mississippi Valley, 347.) Another says that onethird the total immigration located in the West. (Edinburgh Review, 100, 242.)

3 Seventh Census (1850), 36.

adopted by Irishmen is to be had in the country along the lines of the Illinois and Michigan canal. When the work on the canal stopped in the early forties the Irish laborers turned their attention to agriculture, some of them following it permanently. The English, Scotch, French and Swedes also inclined towards agricultural pursuits. Generally speaking the foreigners tended to settle together in localities apart from the other settlers and to maintain their national language and customs as long as possible. This tendency is displayed even today in both the country and the large cities. As time went on, however, the intermixture of Americans and foreigners became frequent, and as the country became more and more densely settled it was impossible for the various nationalities to avoid contact and in many counties the varied composition of population suggests an indiscriminate throwing together of representatives of a dozen nationalities.

The lead region affords an excellent example. One traveler speaking of the district and its inhabitants says: "The miners are the most wonderful mixture of humanity that ever I beheld; they are from all parts of the world but chiefly from Ireland, Derbyshire, Cornwall and Germany." Still another says concerning the same district, "I visited Galena in 1829 and found a most singular and mysterious medley of people located in that place. People from all quarters of the earth had flocked there on account of the celebrity of the lead mines." In 1843 about thirty per cent. of Chicago's population were foreigners" and by 1850 fully one-third were of foreign birth. One-third of the votes in Peoria in the election of 1849 were cast by foreigners. Almost twenty-five per cent., of the population of Freeport in 1850 were foreigners." "In all

8

Murray, Travels in North America (1854), 2, 129.

Reynolds, Illinois, 168.

Norris and Gardiner, Illinois Annual Register (1847), 76; population of Chicago, 7,580; of these 2,256 were foreign. The Germans and Irish together numbered about 1,600. They were nearly equally divided.

Prairie Farmer, 9, 220.

Ballance, Peoria, 201. The total vote was 1,324. Foreigners cast four hundred and thirty-five of these. Germans and Irish were most numerous. Johnston, Sketches of Stephenson County, 94. Population of Freeport 1,436foreigners, 352.