and a Sunday-school formed, in which work Mark Noble and Mrs. Judge Hamilton were particularly active. Then came good Father St. Cyr to the relief of the French and Irish Catholics, and next, our earnest Presbyterian friend and pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Porter. He it was who organized the first Protestant church in Chicago.

This may be called the continuous religious history of Chicago. It is a waste of time and strength to wander back into the seventeenth and eigh. teenth centuries to pounce upon the writings descriptive of the wanderings of the Catholic priests, and every time you find one who stopped in this vicinity, or in any section of country called Chicagou, put a pin there in triumph; the good man was here upon the present site of Chicago -he preached right here! Splendid outcome for days of research! Grand triumph of history!

Returning contentedly to modern. history, we are able to understand that the arrival of Father St. Cyr and Rev. Jeremiah Porter was the birth of Chicago's substantial religious life.

Since the panic of the Indian war the settlers had had no time to erect new houses, and every foot of living room was crowded. Some of the stores even were transformed into dwelling houses. The most pretentious business establishment, however, could not even give up an inch to accommodate the influx of visitors

and settlers. During the preceding fall, George W. Dole, the Chicago. manager of the firm of Newberry & Dole, the large forwarding and commission house of Detroit, had erected a frame warehouse and packinghouse near the present Tremont Hotel. He had good buyers-Clybourne, the Nobles, Hubbard—and was doing a great business; he slaughtered half a thousand cattle and hogs during the first season. Mr. Dole is, therefore, father of one of Chicago's most prodigious industries.

This warehouse was the first frame business structure erected in Chicago.. Two or three others followed, standing in all their glory on South Water street, near La Salle or Dearborn. P. F. W. Peck built one for a store, and before the second story was finished Mr. Porter installed himself there— there was his lodging place and his study. Back of the store was a double log house, in which was a private boarding establishment, where the pastor took his meals. At table he met Mr. Dole, Mr. Peck, Mr. Wright and his son (his family not. having come on), Philo Carpenter, Postmaster Hogan, Lemuel Brown (the new blacksmith), John Bates. (deputy postmaster, afterwards auctioneer, and a resident of a year's. standing), and Miss Harriet, an adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Brown, whom Mr. Bates married in the autumn.

It is not known exactly when Capt.

Seth Johnson returned to Chicago, after having taken his former command to Fort Brady, but certain it is that Mrs. Capt. Seth Johnson came down from Mackinac, accompanied by a school-ma'am, Miss Eliza Chappel by name. In all probability the captain came with his wife and her friend, to end his days in Chicago as a military man, a collector of the port, an alderman and a genial, good fellow. Miss Chappel, upon her arrival, went to live with the family of Major Wilcox, second in command, under Capt. Fowle. Miss Chappel came to teach. She, therefore, looked around for a school-house. But we will enter it through Mr. Porter's narrative, excusing the coupling of these two by the premature announcement that before two years had passed Miss Chappel became Mrs. Porter.

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The stores, in 1833, were all on South Water street, except Beaubien's trading post on the bank just south of the Fort, now Michigan avenue. The first store west of the Reservation, was a log one of John Wright's, reached by a bridge over a slough, corner of State and South Water streets. There Miss Chappel opened her school for children of the Fort and town, when Mr. Wright vacated it to take possession of his new frame store, in the autumn of 1833. A few one-story log groceries, provision, and liquor stores were on South Water street, near Newberry & Dole's forwarding and commission

store

this was the large warehouse; south of that, on Water street, was the log dwelling of Mr. John K. Boyer, who, with his family from Pennsylvania, arrived in Chicago a few months after my coming. Mulford, a jeweler, had near that house a store. The second framed store of the town was that of Mr. Peck (two-story), corner of South Water and La Salle streets; south of it was the drug store of Philo Carpenter; all these had been built within the year, after the war. Below Mr. Carpenter's was the log post-office, kept by Mr. J. S. C. Hogan, who had come to Chicago, from Mackinac. Nearer the Point was the Sauganash Hotel, kept by Mark Beaubien. Over the bridge was the other tavern, kept by W. W. Wattles. There I took my first dinner in Chicago, and on that day met my friend Mr. Wright, to my great joy. On the same side of the river, on what is now the corner of Canal and Madison streets, stood the neat cottage* of Mr. Charles Taylor. Mrs. Taylor was a sister of General Orlando B. Wilcox, born in Detroit, and then a lad sometimes in our Sunday School. Mr. Graves was then building a two-story dwelling near the corner of State and Lake streets. If my memory is right, Dr. J. T. Temple † put up next his two

*This is probably an error, as the best authority is to the effect that this cottage was not built until a year later.

Dr. Temple was a Vermonter, who in July, 1833, arrived from Washington with

story dwelling on Franklin street, just across the corner from the postoffice. Mr. Carpenter, at the same time, was building 'way out on the prairie' on La Salle street, two blocks from Lake."

Also, away out on the prairie, on the verge of the South Side settlement, was the pen for estrays, built by the county-the little log hut-the public building. Mark Noble had moved out of the old Kinzie house into a log building, on the lake shore, south. of Colonel Beaubien's--moved out just in time, because that historic landmark disappears entirely about the time that the revival and the town of 1833 appears. Two sons of John Kinzie were here to see the new birth, however-James a hotel keeper and Robert A., merchant. Colonel Beaubien still resided in the building he had purchased of the American Fur Company, and, with his son Medore, now a young man of twenty-four, was not only a leading business man but a patron of education and a pillar of the Catholic church. Then there were the Clybournes and the Millers -the former not townsmen, however -and the new blood which had run in.

Of that new blood were John S.

his wife and four children, having secured a government contract to transport the mail from Chicago to Ottawa. During the first year of his residence in Chicago he did not become well known as a physician, but as the owner of a sucessful stage line and a most enthusiastic Baptist.

Wright, in the summer of 1833, a minor, and Silas B. Cobb, a plucky Vermonter and harness-maker, who was but a little more than twenty-one years of age. This particular influx of Chicago's new blood must be noticed right here; for it is going to color her future history. Although a harness-maker by trade, Cobb had his eyes open for any work which presented itself. He had not been long in town before he discovered that Mr. James Kinzie wanted to hire somebody to superintend the erection of his hotel-the Green Tree Tavern -on the west side, on the present corner of Canal and Lake streets, and he undertook the work. The "boss carpenter” knew no more about building than Mr. Kinzie did about shoemaking or harness making, and though he looked wise and gave general directions, his ignorance came to the surface. His employer discharged him, but not without several good dollars in his pocket, with which he bought a small stock of goods. With the proceeds of these, which he sold to advantage, he got his start in Chicago, and whether in the carpenter business, the leather business or the gas business, the dollars have ever come his way.

All of these new comers had heard of Chicago in the most natural ways -through their friends, through travelers, through the newspapers, through the events of the Black Hawk warand yet in such a condensation as this history, it is often found neces

sary to thrust characters upon the stage, as if they just happened to wander along that way. But about a week previous to the first meeting of citizens to vote for town trustees, such a remarkable man was started toward Chicago that we feel justified in revealing the springs of action which brought him hither.

In the winter of 1832-33, Charles Butler, a talented, energetic young business man of Geneva, N. Y., was visiting Arthur Bronson, a friend in New York City. Much of their talk was of the Black Hawk war and the country of vast possibilities to which it had attracted the attention of Eastern capitalists. Their minds were, furthermore, inclined to broad financial enterprises, and they were especially interested in railroads and canals. They decided to take a western trip for information and pleasure, Mr. Bronson agreeing to discover what he could before they started in the sum

mer.

General Scott was his friend, and as that doughty officer had recently returned from the West, Mr. Bronson at once interviewed him. After dilating upon the possibilities of the country through which he had passed, General Scott spoke particularly of Chicago, as a likely town, and advised Mr. Bronson to call on a certain merchant who supplied the dealers of that place with goods. He did so, met Robert A. Kinzie, who was ordering a bill, and was offered an interest in the section of land upon which the old homestead was located.

In the summer, therefore, of 1833, Messrs. Butler and Bronson came on to look at the land and to see Chicago. For various reasons no purchase was made until nearly two years thereafter, but the visit of these two to Chicago while the "boom was on," decided them to make an invest-. ment and was eventually the means of bringing to Chicago one of her most remarkable men-William B. Ogden, Mr. Butler's brother-in-law. Having thus, before his time, introduced the first mayor of Chicago city, without more ado, we proceed to speak of Chicago town.

CHICAGO AS A BODY POLITIC.

Having obtained sufficient population to organize as a town, under State laws, the inhabitants of Chicago proceeded to feel of the 'public pulse.

At the meeting held in July, 1833, twelve of the citizens voted for incorporation. Mr. Heacock, lawyer and justice of the peace, voted against it. Dr. E. S. Kimberly, clerk of the meeting and an arrival of the previous year, at once issued notice for an election of five trustees, on the 10th of August. There were thirteen candidates for office out of twenty-eight electors; the successful ones were Colonel Owen, Indian Agent; Mr. Dole, Madore B. Beaubien, John Miller, and Dr. Kimberly; the election being held at the Sauganash, Mark Beaubien's Hotel. Messrs. Carpenter, Wright, Hamilton, Temple, J. B. Beaubien, Hogan, James, and Robert

Kinzie, were honored with a scattering vote, ranging from one to nine. John H. Kinzie had not yet returned with his family from Fort Winnebago, where since 1829 he had been acting as Indian Agent.

The Sauganash was fixed upon as the regular meeting place of the town board, so that Mark Beaubien's large, handsome, cheery presence and his inspiring violin soon became a necessary accompaniment to the business proceedings. President Owen, Clerk Harmon and Treasurer Dole were not more necessary. Not even John Dean Caton, as Corporation Counsel, could compete in importance with Mark Beaubien, the presiding genius at the political headquarters of the town.

As organized, the town of Chicago extended the limits beyond the plat of the Canal Commissioners. To the west the town limits fell short of the original plat, the boundary being Canal instead of Des Plaines street; but the North Side now extended to Ohio instead of Kinzie street, and, of course, the "harbor improvements" in progress and prospective-were included within the boundaries.

The season during which the germs were planted of the body politic was a busy time for the early legislators of Chicago. During the autumn of 1833 the trustees passed an ordinance to prevent the pollution of the river, which was then an important source of supply, no public well having yet been dug and the lake being inconvenient

for many.

The well-to-do householders, it is true, obtained their water from various town venders who drove their hogshead wagons into the lake, near the foot of our Randolph street, filled them and then started out to peddle the clear fluid at from five to ten cents per barrel; the poorer residents living near the river generally obtained their water from the less inconvenient source of supply. So that an ordinance against pollution was timely.

The governing board also warned housekeepers against the passing of unprotected stove-pipes through roofs and partitions, and appointed a fire warden to see that the law was obeyed, or to call out the citizens and take charge of them should a conflagration break out. The authorities further more built a log jail on the northwest corner of the court house square, opposite the "Estray Pen" and nearer the center of the town; for the center of population had already moved away from Wolf Point toward the South Side and the harbor improvements, and when the summer of 1834 opened with the sand bar removed-navigation into the river unimpeded—those portions of the town lying near the harbor - especially South Water street-were considered "made" for all time.

The good news also spread abroad and during the season over a hundred immigrants arrived in town. And of the great forces which had commenced to exert themselves for the