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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
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LIBRARY
OF THE
!N'VF?S!7Y Gf ILLINOIS
Statue of Alexander von Humboldt.
THE &AR0M im.
Magnificent Parks,
Bsulevards and
Gerneteries.
--TOGETHER WITH OTHER --
DESCRIPTIVE VIEWS HP SKETCHES.
profusely Illustrated.
COMPILED AND EDITED
BY ANDREAS SIMON,
I >
CHICAGO:
THE FKANX GINDKLK PRINTING Co.,
140-146 Monroe Street.
1893-
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1893, by
ANDREAS SIMON,
in the Office of the Librarian at Washington, 1). 0.
The Half-Tone Illustrations in this Book,
were made by
J. MAXZ & Co., Engravers,
183, 185 & 187 Monroe i?t., - CHICAGO.
917,731
CONTENTS.
Page.
OUR BEAUTIFUL PARKS 11
Lincoln Park , 15
The South Park System , 40
The West Chicago Parks 60
Humboldt Park 77
Garfield Park 82
Douglas Park 86
West Side Boulevards 90
Mineral Wells 101
West Park Commissioners 105
VOICES PROM THE FlELD OP THE DEAD 106
GARDENS OP THE DEAD 109
Chicago Cemeteries Introduction Ill
Early History of Chicago Cemeteries 115
Graceland 116
Rosehill 123
Calvary 132
St. Boniface 140
Wunder's Churchyard Jewish Cemeteries 144
Oakwoods Cemetery 148
St. Maria Mount Greenwood 152
Mount Olivet 156
Mount Hope 159
Forest Home 163
Waldheim Cemetery 167
939 1 53
Page.
Small Jewish Cemeteries 171
Concordia Cemetery 172
Mount Olive 175
Bohemian National Cemetery 179
OTHER SKSTCH^S AND VIEWS 183
P. S. Peterson's Rosehill Nursery 187
Egandale 195
Domestic Conservatories 199
The Queen of Aquatics 211
Floriculture at the World's Columbian Exposition 215
Edward S. Dreyer , 219
Theodor A. Kochs 220
John M. Smyth Building : 221
BUSINESS NOTICES . . 223
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page.
1.* Statue of Alexander von Humboldt 2
2. Equestrian Statue of Gen'l Grant, Lincoln Park 13
3. Bridge in Lincoln Park 17
4. The "Mall" in Lincoln Park 21
5. Schiller Statue in Lincoln Park 25
6. The Linne Monument in Lincoln Park 29
7. Flower Parterre, showing Old Palm House, Lincoln Park 33
8. Indian Group in Lincoln Park 37
9. Grant Monument in Lincoln Park 41
10. Washington Park 45
11. Sun Dial in Washington Park 49
12. Gates Ajar in Washington Park 53
13. Residence of Mrs. Catharine Seipp, Michigan Boulevard . ., 57
14. The Humboldt Monument in Humboldt Park 61
15. Residence of Wm. Schmidt near Lincoln Park 65
16. Humboldt Park 69
17. Scene in Humboldt Park 75
18. Monument of Fritz Reuter 79
19. Scene in Garfield Park 83
20. Residence of Andrew Leicht near Wicker Park 87
21. Edw. Uihlein's Conservatory near Wicker Park 91
22. Residence of Hermann Weinhardt near Wicker Park 95
23. Residence of Geo. Rahlfs near Wicker Park 99
24. Residence of E. S. Dreyer near Lincoln Park 103
25. Entrance to Graceland 108
26. Monument of Frederick and Cath. Wacker 113
27. Scene in Gracelaud 117
28. Entrance to Rosehill 121
29. "Battery A" Monument, Rosehill 125
30. Hon. John Went worth's Monument. . . .129
8
Page.
31. Entrance to Calvary 133
32. Soldiers' Monument in Rosehill 137
33. Monument of Mrs. Louise Hesing in St. Boniface 141
34. Allerton Monument in Graceland 145
35. Gateway to Oakwoods Cemetery 149
36. Monument to Volunteer Fire Brigade 153
37. Monument of Prof. Cummings Cherry ' 157
38. Entrance to Forest Home .161
39. Scene in Forest Home 165
40. Entrance to Waldheim 169
41. Monument of John Bilhler 173
42. View in Waldheim 177
43. Bohemian Cemetery 181
44. Residence of P. S. Petersen 185
45. Scene in Waldheim : 189
46. Scene in Waldheim 193
47. Egandale Porch Decoration 197
48. Residence of Adolph Schoninger 201
49. Egandale The "Flower Basket" 205
50. J. C. Vaughan's Greenhouses 2&9
51. Egandale The "Rockery" 213
52. Scene in Waldheim . . . . 217
THE admirable and extensive Park System of the "Fair" City testifies
loudly to the fact that the legislative authorities of the State of Illinois
had early recognized the high value of public gardens and the sanitary
benefits which large cities derive therefrom.
Ample provision is made that onr parks, the " lungs" of this large city,
are from year to year enriched by new charms and additional landscape
scenery, thanks to the munificence of the people who every year pay many
thousands of dollars into the treasury of the park commissioners. The fact
is conceded by all that the parks are a necessity for the health of the people
and a means for their moral and aesthetic education.
Every human being, who has an open heart for the beauties and joys of
nature is gladdened when he gives himself up to the agreeable influences of
these shady groves, for they help him to forget and bear more easily the
troubles and cares of every day life. Soothed and with new vigor of body
and soul he returns to his accustomed occupation.
What then could be offered to the masses in large cities, earning their
daily bread in the sweat of their brow, that would be more pleasant and bene-
ficial than the opportunity to spend their short hours of recreation in the
glorious temple of nature with its innocent and precious joys ?
Of 'special value are our parks to the people of Chicago on Sundays and
Holidays. Then they pour into these lovely groves on foot and in carriages to
enjoy there the cool shade of the trees, the sight of the many colored flower
beds and the purer air. This is indeed a recreation for the toiling laborer and
where else could it be found within his reach, but in these gardens which are
so richly endowed by nature and art ? And what a refreshing spring of health
and pleasure these parks are for the children !
They indeed prove a great blessing to all the people, and especially to
those who between Sundays and Holidays are huddled together in dingy
quarters and are exercising and tasking all their strength to keep want from
their threshold. The pure fresh air, laden with the fragrance of flowers, the
elevating sight of the green meadows, the groves with their feathered song-
sters, the flowers, and the ponds with the swiftly flying boats plowing their
mirror-like surface, give new courage and hope to the faint hearts ; and the
children of the poor classes, growing up amongst want and privations in un-
healthy hovels, generally preys to disease during the hot days of summer,
gather new strength here, and the refreshing air, fanning their feverish cheeks,
together with the sights of all the beauties of nature bring sunshine and joy
to these little sick and feeble ones, and in many cases no doubt health again,
too.
Extraordinary exertions were made last year (1892) not only to give the
several parks increased scenic charms but also to complete before the opening
of the Exposition the chain of boulevards winding around the city as an
incomparable beautiful cycle of green gardens.
Mr. John Thorpe, who knows perhaps more about flowers than any other
man in this country and who for this reason was selected as chief of floricult-
ure by the Director-general of the World's Columbian Exposition, has the
following to say in regard to our parks and their floral decorations:
10
' ' Owing in great part to its geographical position there is probably no city
in the Union whose Public Parks are as varied and interesting as those of Chi-
cago. Each Park has its well known individual features and distinct charac-
teristics, the result of their having been planned and laid out in each case
under entirely different management.
Humboldt Park is particularly rich in natural landscape and the leading
feature of Lincoln Park is found in its superb water effects. Douglas and
Garfleld Park each have attractive features purely their own, while Washing-
ton Park probably derives its great popularity from the magnificent way in
which temporary material, flowering and bedding plants, are shown during
the spring, summer and autumn, of each year.
I am aware that the general work done in the Chicago Parks, and espec-
ially that done by Mr. Fred Kanst, the Superintendent of Washington Park,
has been criticized by writers in some of the leading publications of the country,
but I feel that it is unjust to make such severe criticisms on work which is
artistic in its way and no more counterfeit than is a portrait on canvas. I feel
that many people would prevent children from seeing a chromo or a lithograph
because their parents were not sufficiently rich to buy a Corot or a Turner pic-
ture. It is a strange fact that of the hundreds of thousands of people, who
visit the Chicago Parks, the large majority of them visit and linger most
around the very features, which these so called critics condemn and it is in this
vicinity, that the grass is trodden down almost beyond recognition under the
feet of the great masses of people, who gather there to enjoy these very effects;
thus showing the great interest that is taken therein by the very people to
whose pleasure and enjoyment it is the main purpose of the Public Parks to
cater.
It must be understood that there is a great deal of flower planting done
that is as free from geometry as are natures groupings, so there is no fear of
there being one class of work neglected to the advantage or disparagement of
another."
And the skillful florists of the several parks are determined to make a
much finer show this year of flower decorations, than ever before.
It is the purpose of this book not only to be a guide for the many World's
Fair visitors to and through the parks and boulevards and its park-like ceme-
teries, but also to furnish needed information regarding the beauties and
peculiarities, the size and arrangements of these public gardens and the
astonishing progress made in landscape gardening. With the conviction that
such a description of our beautiful and much praised park and cemetery-
system, as it is now seen in its perfection, is calculated to awaken interest in
and strengthen the love for this beautiful city, which will in itself during
1893 be the most wonderful and curious object on exhibition, this book is sub-
mitted to au indulgent public and to all friends of nature by
THE AUTHOR.
|ur Beautiful Parks.
Lincoln Park. Hquestriaii Statue of General Grant.
RY
OF THE
i'W'VF?S!VY Qf ILLINOIS
15
LINCOLN PARK.
All of our beautiful parks give evidence, that their high sanitary value
was already fully recognized at a time, when Chicago was yet numbered
among the smaller cities of our country, but none enjoy greater popularity
among the people from abroad, as well as among those from our own city, as
Lincoln Park, over on the North Side, where the foaming billows of mighty
Lake Michigan break over^the rocky beach of this magnificent stretch of park-
Land and moisten it with their spray.
The first move made in the direction of establishing Lincoln Park is found
in the records of the Council proceedings of 1860, where a memorial is found
signed by George Manierre, William Jones, Benjamin W. Raymond, Walter
L. Newberry, Grant Goodrich and Mark Skinner (those pioneers and earliest
workers for Chicago's present greatness, but who all now lie in their silent
graves), stating that the cemetery, located then upon the 60 acres now forming
the extreme southern part of the present park, was in a shamefully dilapidated
condition and petitioning the Mayor and the city authorities to carry out in
good faith their pledges to the purchasers of -lots, to use the fund arising from
the sale of lots in improving and keeping in repair said cemetery, and also
stating that " it is not desired that there should be any extension of the limits "
of the then existing cemetery grounds, and asking for the appointment of a
special committee to take immediate action in the matter. In accordance with
the request contained in said memorial James Long and Benjamin Carpenter
were appointed such special committee to examine into and report on the
matter. Jan. 10, 1860, said committee reported that negotiations were then
pending with the officers of the Rosehill Cemetery company for a section of its
ground wherein to bury the dead falling under the city's charge, and also to
insure a place of burial for the poor. It adds : 'It seems to have become a
settled thing in the public mind that no further extension of the cemetery
grounds within the city limits be permitted." And it acknowledges the jus-
tice of such sentiment as follows: "That it is the sacred duty of the city to
live up to its pledges and to protect, improve, and save from dilapidation the
spot where the remains of our early settlers lie, in order that the citizens may
have the fullest confidence in its permanency. And it is further ordered that
the cemetery should not be permitted to extend beyond its then limits, and
that the north sixty acres should remain unoccupied.
It is stated in this letter that the ground purchased by the city comprises
120 acres; that the south sixty acres only have been subdivided into lots and
sold for cemetery purposes, and after other suggestions is the following: "We
propose the abandonment of this tract (the north sixty acres) to the city to be
used for a public ground, and such other public purposes (if any) as the Com-
mon Council may devote it to. We do not advise its sale; such a step we think
would be unwise."
On June 13, 1864, an ordinance was introduced in the city council by John
M. Armstrong, of the then 13th ward, consisting of three sections as follows:
1. That hereafter nobodies shall be buried in the Chicago cemetery, ex-
cept in the lots which have been sold by the city.
2. All the north part of the Chicago cemetery which has not been sur-
veyed and divided into cemetery lots (here follows the description) is hereby
set apart for and declared to be a public park, and shall be known by the
name of .
Sec. 3 provides, in substance, for the subdivision and sale of certain other
property in the vicinity of the cemetery grounds, owned by the city, "the
proceeds of which shall be applied to the improvement of a public park afore-
said," etc.
16
The matter by the records appears to have stood in this shape, it not
appearing that any opposition was made; at least there is none to be found in
the printed records of the Common Council until Oct. 21, 1864, when it appears
that Aid. Armstrong called the matter up, and after some controversy as to the
third section the first and second sections were carried unanimously and the
third section rejected, and Aid. Holderi moved that the blank in the second
section be filled in " Douglas Park." This was rejected by a vote of 14 to 9.
Aid. Woodman moved that the park be named "Lake Park," and the said
two sections were tlien so unanimously passed.
Subsequently July 5, 1865, the late Aid. Iver Lawson moved, that as the
park on the lake front and Michigan Avenue was named " Lake Park " the said
sixty acres of the cemetery grounds be known as "Lincoln Park," which was
unanimously carried.
But the Armstrong ordinance, prohibiting burials in the potters' field, was
almost entirely disregarded, and since its passage some 533 bodies of paupers
had been buried there (sixty-three of them at the city's expense), so on Sept.
4, of that year a resolution was introduced in the Council, which was immedi-
ately passed, ordering the proper authorities to attend to the rigid enforce-
ment of said ordinance in that regard.
As a legal proposition, the rights of the lot holders under their purchases
were inalienable and could not under ordinary circumstances be interfered
with. April 2, 1866, a resolution to the Common Council was immediately
adopted, appointing a special committee for the purpose of consulting with
the City Physician and other leading physicians as to the effect upon the gen-
eral health of the city from the practice of burials in the old cemetery and the
Catholic Cemetery adjoining on the south, they being so near our water supply,
etc. Said committee shortly afterward reported in substance that as a sanitary
measure all such burials should be prohibited as injurious to the public health,
etc. Upon said report Alderman Proudfoot drew up and presented an ordi-
nance as a sanitary measure, 'prohibiting all burials, extending such prohibi-.
tion to the entire limits of the City of .Chicago, which was passed by a vote of
27 to 2, May 28, 1866. This put a stop to all future burials within the limits
of the City of Chicago, and as a matter of course created a great deal of dis-
satisfaction among the majority of the purchasers of lots in the said cemetery.
Finally the authorities got the said lot owners' consent to the removal of
all the bodies interred in their lots in exchange for equally valuable lots in
some one or other of the new cemeteries, and the final result was that said
cemetery was almost entirely vacated and handed over to the cily for park
purposes.
Mr. W. C. Goudy, President of the Lincoln Park Board for the last five
years, who has been connected with Lincoln Park either as attorney or com-
missioner from the time of the passage of the original park ordinance, took an
active part in originating the park system in 1863. It so happened that on
a visit to the grounds, which lay between Center Street and Webster Ave., the
idea occurred to him also, that the ground was suitable for a park and he accord-
ingly examined the title of property and ascertained that it was not dedicated
for a cemetery, but belonged to the city by an absolute purchase, with a right
to use it for any public purpose. He then procured the active service of
Voluntine C. Turner, who was then in the management of the north side street
railroad, and, after having revised the ordinance, with his influence exerted
upon other aldermen in aid of the efforts made by Alderman Armstrong, the
ordinance was passed.
But notwithstanding the prominent part the aforesaid gentlemen have
taken in the matter of originating or promoting the Lincoln Park project, a
great deal, if not most of the credit is due to the old Board of Public Works,
which came into existence in the year 1861. To prove this assertion it is only
necessary to go back to the early reports of this body and to select from these
the one submitted to the city council February 8th. 1862. Here Commission
ers John G. Gindele (president of the Board for four years), Benjamin Car-
penter and Frederick Letz make the following statement in reference to the
old city cemetery:
U B fiY
Of THE
!MivF?p.{VY C. : ILLINOIS
- 19
" Perhaps as general an interest will be felt in the work done in that part
of the grounds, lying north of the cemetery proper, and which has not yet
been subdivided into lots. Here are some 40 acres of public grounds of di-
versified surface, bordering on the lake, covered with a young growth of wood,
and affording to the city the promise of an attractive park, at a small expense.
Without any large expenditure here, a good deal has been accomplished in
giving the grounds an inviting appearance, and by trimming up and thinning
the young trees, to secure a good growth and shape to such as are left stand-
ing. A gate has been built in this part of the grounds, and several small
bridges thrown across the county ditch flowing through the grounds and dis-
charging into the lake. Continuous drives will be made through the cemetery
and park, and the grounds made a pleasant place of resort for parties either walk-
ing or riding. It is very desirable that these improvements should not be ar-
rested here, and as the funds with which they have been made are nearly ex-
hausted, that means be provided for their further progress."
And again, looking through the report of the Commissioners under date
April 1, 1863, a year previous to the time Alderman Armstrong introduced
his park ordinance to the council, we find the following pointed reference made
to the desirability of establishing a park on the site where Lincoln Park now
is situated: "But little could be done for the park, as the appropriation was very
meagre. It would, doubtless, gratify the citizens to see well ornamented the
small amount of public grounds which the qity.iias. We especially recommend
that liberal provisions be made for laying put'an'd improving the grounds to
be used for a park at the north of the cemetery. It is desirable that a regular
plan be determined on for ornamenting these grounds, and for drives and
walks connecting with the cemetery and connecting streets and that an annual
appropriation be made to carry it out. This park will have an extent of about
fifty acres."
This oasis in the busy metropolis of the west is situated only two miles
distant from the Court House and is bounded on the east by Lake Michigan,
on the north by Diversey Street, on the south by North Avenue and on the
west by Clark Street. It is easily reached from the heart of the city by using
the Clark or Wells Street Cable cars on their northward trips. Lincoln Park
now contains over 300 acres, and is made all the more interesting through its
many monuments of great and good men. The Park Board was created by
an act of legislature in 1869, and four years later the condemnation proceedings
were completed, the title to all the territory to be embraced within the parks
except a small portion of the cemetery tract, acquired, and the Pine Street
Drive was so far completed as to be opened for public use. In the original
act E. B. McCagg, J. B. Turner, Joseph Stockton, Jacob Rehm and Andrew
Nelson were named as the first Board of Commissioners. They met March 16,
1869, and were organized by the election of E. B. McCagg as President. The
time of the Board for the first year was mainly devoted to a topographical
study of the territory to be embraced within the Park preparing plans for
future improvements, and starting the machinery which had been devised by the
law. On the 26th of February, 1871 , the Board suffered a serious loss by the death
of Mr. John B. Turner, one of its most valued members. By an act of the Gen-
eral Assembly approved June 16, 1871, provision was made for the appoint-
ment of a new Board of Commissioners, a question having been raised as to
the power of the legislature to name the Commissioners in the law. In Nov-
ember, 1871, the Governor appointed as such Commissioners Samuel M.
Nickerson, Joseph Stockton, Belden F. Culver, Wm. H. Bradley and Francis
Kales, to succeed the Board which had been named in the original law. The
first meeting of the new Board was held Nov. 28, 1871, and organized by the
election of B. F. Culver as President. Under the administration of this Board
proceedings were instituted for acquiring title to the various tracts of land
embraced within the limits of the Park. In February, 1874, Commissioners
Nickerson, Bradley and Kales resigned, and the Governor appointed as their
successors, F. H. Winston, A. C. Hesing and Jacob Rehm. At the meeting
of the Board Feb. 24. 1874, B. F. Culver resigned as President and F. H. Win-
ston was elected as President of the Board.
20
During the term of this Board, the condemnation proceedings were com-
pleted. Commissioners liehm and Hesiug, who had done yeomen's service
during the two years of their official labors and to whose indefatigable energy
and foresight the Park Board of that time was deeply indebted, resigned in
July 1876, and the Governor appointed us their successors, T. F. Withrow and
L. J. Kadish. Commissioner Culver resigned in June, 1877, and the Governor
appointed Max Hjortsberg as his successor.
Pursuant to the provisions of the original act, which contemplated, that
Lincoln Park should be a City Park, the Board in 1869 applied to the Mayor
of Chicago to issue the bonds of the city for an amount necessary for the pur-
chase of the land to be embraced in the Park. The Mayor refusing to act in
the matter, an application was made for a mandamus to compel the issue of
the Bonds. The law being declared invalid, additional legislation became neces-
sary, which by an act of the General Assembly approved June 16, 1871, author-
ized a special assessment to be made by the corporate authorities of the towns
of North Chicago and Lake View (within which towns the Park lies), on all
lands deemed benefitted, for the enlargement and improvement of Lincoln
Park. Pursuant thereto, an assessment was made in 1873 and confirmed by
the Circuit Court. On au appeal to the Supreme Court an error was pointed
out in the law which again compelled the Commissioners to invoke the power
of the Legislature, and ask that the law be amended iu conformity with the
decision of the Court.
A special assessment as provided by an act approved Feb. 18, 1874, was
made in July, 1875, by the Supervisor and Assessor of the town of North Chi-
cago on all lots and lands in said town deemed benefitted by the proposed im-
provement, and was sustained by the Supreme Court. Thus the Board had
been enabled to secure the lands which are embraced within the limits of the
Park. In the character of the improvements the various Boards have ever and
successfully endeavored to keep the expenditures within their means, and have
studiously avoided costly architectural display, preferring the simplest and
most economical treatment consistent with good taste and the public require-
ments.
No Commissioner has at any time received any compensation for his ser-
vices, nor have they derived any advantage, pecuniary or otherwise, from their
connection with the Park Commission, except the pleasure realized from the
public appreciation of their labors.
The southern portion of the park was formerly used by the city as a bury-
ing ground, and it became necessary of course to disinter the remains of those
slumbering there and to remove them to Graceland and Ilosehill Cemeteries.
Not one of our parks, with the exception perhaps of the much smaller
Union Park, over on the West Side, is so near to the business centre of the
city as Lincoln Park, to which fact it is chiefly due that it receives the lion's
share of strangers coming to the city. The parks in other cities being less cen-
trally located, and not so convenient of access, are frequented largely by the
wealthier classes, the visitors in carriages far outnumbering those on foot.
Lincoln Park, bordered on three sides by a dense population and convenient of
approach, is the daily resort of all classes of the community, the poor as well
as the rich enjoying the pleasure it affords; the pedestrians far outnumbering
those who ride. Without any of the advantages of diversified surface, fertility
of soil, or natural shade possessed by Parks elsewhere to aid in beautifying
and improving the tract which the law has appropriated for the Park, there
has been a constant struggle to reduce the soil (if such the sandy surface may
be termed) to subjection, that the waste places might bloom. But it possesses
also a number of attractive features, as yet lacking in the other parks of this
city. To begin with, there is a very interesting and instructive zoological
collection, then we have numerous monuments reared to statesmen, soldiers,
men of letters, etc.; we can boast of an electric fountain of great splendour, a
gift of Mr. Charles T. Yerkes, the President of the North and West Side
Street Railway Companies, and last but not least, the refreshing, cool breezes,
wafted over the shady walks and drives from the glittering waters of Lake
Michigan.
LIB* RY
OF THE
P.SYY C. r ILLINOIS
23
But the most excellent feature, calling forth the admiration of the throngs
of visitors promenading through the park during the summer time, is the gor-
geous array of beautiful flowers extending north from the Schiller statue to
the new palm house. Mr. Charles Stromback, the efficient and popular chief
gardener of the park, is untiring in his efforts to please the public by showy
and artistically arranged outdoor floral decorations. During the winter season
he and his able staff of gardeners busy themselves with making ample provi-
sions for the necessities of spring, when nature awakens to new life and ac-
tivity. And then, when the tulips, hyacinths and other flowery messengers of
spring have ceased to bloom, Mr. Stromback forthwith begins with the distri-
bution of summer flowers, which he arranges along the magnificent expanse of
lawns south of the palm house and elsewhere with praiseworthy skill and taste,
whereupon he leaves it to kind mother earth and the sun's genial rays to carry
his work to completion, to give the flowers further growth and enchanting
.beauty.
Here are to be seen the most lovely children of flora planted in long ser-
pentine beds or in the shape of gaudy rugs and carpets. Of such carpet beds
there are several that deserve close scrutiny on the part of the interested saun-
derer, as they are indeed to be classed among the best creations of artistic flori-
culture. The finest specimens may be found at both ends of the Bates fouu
tain. Flowers in bewildering variety, velvety lawns, catalpa-trees, mighty
vases and foliage plants, all combine to make the prospect one of rare beauty.
Here it is where Mr. Stromback has used his skill to the best effect, and here
it is where will be found many of the old favorites pansies, geraniums, col-
lodium, verbenas, heliotrope, pinks, single chrysanthemum, linum grandi-
florum, gilliflowers, gladiolus, roses, larkspur, cock's-comb, daisies, balsam,
petunia's, etc. Following the winding path we come to ' the aforesaid Bates
fountain which forms the centre of this floral exhibition. It was presented to
the people of Chicago by the lamented philanthropist, Eli Bates, and may be
described as follows: In a circular basin, walled with granite, sportive boys
half fish, half human are frolicking. Graceful swans join in the sport and
shower water over the laughing youngsters and their finny prizes. In the cen-
ter rises a clump of bullrushes with their slender, graceful leaves. The design
is harmonious it is the work of Augustus St. Gaudens and of merit. South
of the fountain, at the southern boundary of the flower garden, stands the fam-
ous figure of Germany's great poet, Friedrich Schiller. This fine monument
was donated to the park and the people by the German- American citizens of
Chicago through one of their leading associations the Swabian Society. The
statue is a noble work and well exemplifies the greatness of the German thinker
and writer.
. The unveiling of this monument took place on Saturday, May 15, 1886.
Originally the ninth day of May, the anniversary of Schiller's death, had been
decided upon as the date for the unveiling ceremonies, but the excitement pre-
vailing at that time among all classes of our population, in consequence of the
anarchistic bomb throwing at the Haymarket, made a postponement impera-
tively necessary. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather on May
15, the Germans of Chicago and vicinity turned out in great masses to do
honor to the occasion and to participate in the dedicatory exercises in Lincoln
Park, where the large throng, sheltered under an extensive black roof of open
umbrellas, patiently listened to the able speeches and the soul-inspiring songs
of the united German singing societies. The oration of the day was delivered
by Mr. Willielm Rapp, Editor in chief of the Illinois Staats Zeitung; the other
speakers were Carter II. Harrison, then Mayor of Chicago, and Mr. Julius
Rosenthal, Chairman of the Monument Committee.
The Swabian Society started the movement that led to the erection of this
monument in the month of November, 1880, and nearly four years later, on
September 1, 1884, a committee of German Citizens was appointed for the pur-
pose of collecting the funds needed to complete the sum that was necessary
to pay for the monument and to carry to a successful termination the noble
work begum by the Swabian Society. On January 1, 1884, there were on
hand already $3.022 for this purpose, and it did not take the committee a very
24
long time to bring the enterprise to a highly satisfactory issue. The Com-
mittee consisted of the following well known Germans: Franz Amberg,
August Bauer, Franz Demmler, Hermann De Vry, Emil Dietzsch, Edward 8.
Dreyer, Joseph Frank, Carl Haerting, C. E. Heiss, Phil. Henue, A. C. Hesiug,
Arnold Holinger, Louis Huck, Theodor Karls, Francis Lackner, Andrew C.
Leicht, T. J. Lefens, Leopold Mayer, Fridolin Madlener, C. C. MOller, Louis
Nettelhorst, Georg Trussing, Julius Rosenthal, Harry Rubens, Dr. Rudolph
Seiffert, Max Stern, Gustav Stieglitz, Jos. Schoninger, Frank Wenter, Geo. A.
Weiss and Ludwig Wolff.
The corner stone of the foundation was laid on Nov.* 11, 1885, and six
months later the statue formed one of the grandest and most interesting sights
in Lincoln Park. It was cast by Win. Pelargus, of Stuttgart, Germany, and is
an exact copy of the Schiller statue in Marbach, which was cast from a bust
modelled from life by the celebrated sculptor Dannecker. The chief excel-
lence of the Schiller statue in Lincoln Park is found in its wonderful artistic
simplicity. It is 10 feet high and must be seen to be appreciated. The unveil-
ing ceremonies were very impressive, notwithstanding the rain and were wit-
nessed by over 10,000 people, among which were no less than sixty different
German societies and lodges. After the exercises in the open air and rain had
been concluded, a banquet took place in the Refectory, where more speeches
were delivered and where the celebrated German Gemuethlichkeit reigned
supreme.
North of the palm house stands the colossal figure of Linnaeus, which was
presented to the park by the countrymen of the great botanist and was unveiled
May 23, 1891. The first actual step was taken when the Linnean Monument
Association was organized and incorporated. An executive committee of 45
persons was appointed at the same time. This committee issued a call to the
Swedes of America asking for contributions, but as the responses were few
. and far between, it soon became apparent that the Swedish residents of Chi-
cago had either to abandon the project or perform the task themselves unaided
by outsiders. The greater part of the funds expended has consequently been
raised in this city, partly by liberal subscriptions and partly through picnica
and other public entertainments, in which the secular Swedish societies have
shown much interest by making considerable contributions in the way of patron-
age. The first president of the monument association was Mr. J. A. Enander,
who was succeeded by Mr. Robert Lindblom, to whose pluck and push a good
deal of the early success must be ascribed. The monument is a very credit-
able work.of art. The model was made by C. J. Dufverman in Stockholm,
where, too, the statue was cast by Otto Meyer and Co. The cost of the whole,
as it now stands on a pedestal of granite shipped from Maine is $15,000. But
there are to be added four figures representing as many different sciences, viz.:
botany, medicine, chemistry and zoology, in all of which Linne had extensive
knowledge. When thus finished there will have been expended about $22,000.
These allegorical figures will, it is expected, be ready and put in their proper
places within a very short time. The statue is 39 feet high from the base to
the apex. The height of the figure is 14^ feet. When complete, the monu-
ment will be an exact counterpart of the Linne monument erected in Stock-
holm some years ago.
Those of the Directors of the Monument Association, who deserve special
mention for liberality in cash contributions and untiring efforts during the four
years that elapsed since the work was commenced are Robert Lindblom, And-
rew Chaiser, P. S. Peterson, L. G. Hallberg, C. O. Carlson, F. A. Lindstrand, A.
E. Johnson, Nils Anderson, August Jernberg, Victor Rylander, Lawrence
Hesselroth, O. F. Vidman, Chas. Eklund, Alexander J. Johnson and many
others.
The unveiling ceremonies were preceded by a large procession. The pre-
sentation speech was delivered by Mr. Robert Lindblom and the speech of ac-
ceptance by the President of the Lincoln Park Board. Mayor Washburne fol-
lowed with a few remarks and then gave way to Mr. C. F. Peterson, who re-
cited a poem written for the occasion. The orator of the day was Mr. John
A. Enander, who spoke in Swedish. After the conclusion of the dedication
R-o/u-
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27
ceremonies the vast throng adjourned to Thielemann's summer resort just out-
side the northern boundaries of the Park, where the celebration of the day
was continued. Among those who spoke there were Robert Lindblom, C. F.
Peterson, Rev. H. Lindskog and Dr. Frithjof Larson. As Secretary of the
Monument Association, Mr. Lawrence Hesselroth has rendered valuable ser-
vices, and so has Mr. Louis "Widestrand in the capacity of Financial Secretary.
Others who have displayed much enthusiasm and sacrificed time and money
in the enterprise are L. F. Hussander, Richard Lindgren, Nils Anderson, Gus-
tave Svenson, Chas. Stromback, head gardener of Lincoln Park, P. A. Sunde-
lius, S. A. Freeman, and many more.
At the southern end of the park the statue of the great and good Abraham
Lincoln is the dominant attraction. The surroundings of this monumental
work seem to have been arranged with no other object than to embrace its beau-
ties. It faces North Avenue and is approached by a winding drive which circles
from both the Clark Street and the Lake Shore Drive entrances. A concourse
is placed before it where carriages can assemble, while the occupants view the
figure of the great emancipator at their leisure. Augustus St. Gaudens was
the sculptor. The cost of this great work was about $40,000. The late Eli
Bates presented it to the park, and the expense was borne by his estate.
Among the other monuments which adorn this lovely park, the equestrian
statue of General Grant attracts the most attention. The demonstration attend-
ing the formal dedication of this monument October 7, 1891, was a very im-
posing affair and the exercises throughout were of a character thoroughly in
keeping with the dignity of the occasion. The parade and the naval display
off Lincoln Park were witnessed by matiy thousands of people, and the oratory,
which was heard by comparatively few of the great multitudes that were out
for the day, was of a character to command attention and respect. Judge
Gresham's tribute to the old commander was comprehensive, appreciative and
in entire good taste, while the other speakers performed the duties assigned
to them in a manner that left nothing to be desired.
The monument to Grant was designed for the soldiers of the army whose
tattered flags fluttered about the pedestal on that memorable day. The face
that looked over the troubled flood of Lake Michigan as the descending sun
broke from the clouds and painted the dancing waters, was not the face of
Grant in his later and weaker hours. But it was the face the veterans had
seen years ago when trudging over the dusty roads of Tennessee and Virginia,
when they turned to cheer the iron man who was to lead them to victory. He
sat then as the bronze sits now, firmly astride his horse, plain almost to a point
of affectation in his dress the army coat that covered his sturdy frame as
threadbare as theirs, the worn slouched hat a rebuke to the frippery of the
staff. His face in the statue is the face of that day a firm and dogged face;
the eyes intent under the gathered brow as if watching the smoke of the skir-
mish lines, the lips compressed, the firmness of the jaw showing through the
rough beard.
Something of affectation for Grant, who sprang from the good soil of nor-
thern Illinois; something of pride in the fact that Chicago was first of the great
towns of America to unveil a fit monument to the hero, and something of the
popular love of holiday parades and bands, combined to choke the streets along
the lake with the greatest crowd in memory. It was not only Chicago
although more than half the town turned out to block the line of march and
surge across the meadows of Lincoln Park but from early morning crowded
trains drew to the city the population of the suburbs for hundreds of miles.
They were the preliminary shower that was afterwards lost in the downpour
when the floodgates of the city were loosened.
More than two hundred thousand people lined Michigan Avenue and the
cross streets from Park Row to the river to see the great pageant, unquestion-
ably the popular feature of the Grant Memorial Day. Neither rain nor mud
deferred the vast crowd from standing for fully four hours wedged in the jam
such as only Chicago and the much abused and yet famous lake front can pro-
duce. Along the east side of the regatta course in Lincoln Park, for nearly
half a mile, and in the meadow that lies about the monument, 500,000 people
2
28
had gathered. On the banks of the boat course they sat metiers as about an
amphitheatre, making a foreground of changing line as the mass of faces
turned in the sunlight for the fleet bobbing at anchor in the surge. The
roughness of the day prevented a great naval display, but the revenue cutters
and steamers, flaming with the colors at their yards, and rising, falling and
swinging with the swell, were impressive. It is not given to the widow of
every soldier or statesman, however great he may have been, to witness hun-
dreds of thousands assembled to do homage to the memory of a loved husband.
It was a wondrous sight that met the gaze of Mrs. Grant as she drove out from
the residence of Potter Palmer to take her place in the fourth division of the
procession as the most distinguished of the goodly array of distinguished
guests. Dressed in black and wearing glasses, Mrs. Grant looked highly
S 'eased at the warm reception she received from the assembled thousands,
rawn by two handsome roans and with the coachman and footman in livery,
Potter Palmer's carriage took up its position on the right of the leading four
carriages of the division. Alongside Mrs. Grant was seated the 1 , popular Presi-
dent of the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Fair, Mrs. Potter Palmer,
looking radiant and pleased at the reception given her honored guest. In the
carriage also were Ulysses Grant and Potter Palmer. All along the route Mrs.
Grant was warmly cheered and she responded by bowing and smiling.
Mr.Edward S. Dreyer, the well-known German- American banker, Ex-Presi-
dent of the Real Estate Board of Chicago, and at that time also Chairman of
the Board of Trustees of the Grant Monument Association, had the high honor
conferred upon him to preside over this gigantic meeting. He opened the
ceremonies with a neat little speech, and then introduced Rev. Bishop New-
man, who invoked divine blessing on the day's undertaking and the people
assembled. The principal oration was delivered by Judge Gresham, while
shorter speeches were made by Mr. Edward S. Taylor, the popular Secretary
of the Board of Lincoln Park Commissioners and Mayor Washburne.
As the las/ speaker stepped from the stand Chairman Dreyer declared that
the exercises were over. But he raised his hand as the people began to move
away and introduced Louis F. Rebisso, the sculptor, who threw all the strength
of his genius into the statue which now stands for aye in Lincoln Park. The
old soldiers cheered heartily for the man who had moulded the form of their
loved general. Cries for a speech from the sculptor made those turn back
who were going away. But Mr. Rebisso shook his head and declined to speak.
Two hours after the death of General U. S. Grant, July 28, 1885, Potter
Palmer had subscribed $5,000 to a monument fund, and before the evening of
the fourth day after the General's death nearly $42,000 had been raised.
This was the remarkable beginning of one of the most spontaneous and popu-
lar memorials ever offered by a people. While New York rode up the Hudson
drive to a vacant knoll where Grant's monument was to have overlooked the
great river bend, the people of Chicago were gathered around the largest and
finest bronze statue of the kind ever cast in America, commemorating with un-
covered heads the life of that greatest of soldier statesmen.
At no time in the history of the statue association was there the slightest
difficulty in securin gsubscriptions. A committee of citizens were selected to
receive moneys in various ways and from the different classes, industries
and societies of the city. This committee was as follows:
Henry Towner, Jacob Grommes, S. B. Raymond,
J. D. Harvey, T. J. Lefens, M. Selz,
Norman Williams, H. W. Fuller, Joseph Charles,
George H. Rozet, C. Henrotin, Edward Rose,
Thomas F. Cunningham, George Schmidt, John Grosse,
C. B. Farwell, Robert Lindblom, Charles Kern,
J. T. McAuley, E. F. Cragiu, Charles H. Wacker,
W. T. Johnson, S. N. Jewett, J. B. Sullivan,
Louis Wampold, P. E. Stanley, M. Schweisthal.
Henry Wieland, P. P. Hey wood,
Another committee was created as a board of trustees and to oversee the
The Liiine Monument in Lincoln Park.
LIB- HY
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designing and erecting of the memorial. This committee or board was chosen
as follows:
E, S. Dreyer, J. McGregor Adams, Samuel M. Nickerson,
William E. Strong, % Norman Williams, Joseph Stockton.
Potter Palmer, ' Edward S. Taylor,
When the fund was complete it amounted to about $65,000. Many differ-
ent memorials were advocated before the committee, and it was only after long
discussion that the present base and statue were decided upon. General Scho-
field wished a simple figure of Grant, supporting his desire by the homely and
noble sentiment, that Grant needed no compliment. Mr. Rebisso, the sculptor,
made first a drawing and then a model before his design for a figure was
accepted. Had not Mr. Rebisso been ill for nearly a year and the first casting
by M. M. Mossman, of Chicopee, Mass., been defective, the work would have
been finished long before.
The statue combines grace and grandeur. It has force and solidity. The
pedestal and base of Hallowell granite are majestic. This foundation was de-
signed by F. M. Whitehouse of Chicago. Mr. Rebisso modeled the general
sitting finely and easily in the saddle, holding the reins in the left hand and
grasping a field glass in the right. The right hand is lowered to the thigh and
the pose of the body suggests a careful survey of the field. The purpose is to
convey Grant's concentration of mind; his confidence in fortune, his officers
and men, and his own self reliance. It is 18" feet and 3 inches from the bottom
of the plinth to the crown of the slouch hat. The location of the statue was
chosen out of regard for popular sentiment. The larger subscribers preferred
to have it stand in the northern section, but when they discovered that the
people preferred it to stand on the lake shore near the southern end, the larger
subscribers at once submitted.
Then there was erected a few years ago a life-size statue to the explorer,
Robert La Salle. It was donated by Hon. Lambert Tree and was designed
by De La Laing, a noted Belgian Sculptor. And on a hill located between
the lower park lake and the Lake Shore Drive is the celebrated Ryerson monu
ment, an Indian group in bronze. The figures are those of an Indian, with
his wife, child and dog, on the alert, as if watching the approach of a stranger,
not yet declared a foe, but still too remote to give assurance of friendly design.
The pedestal which supports this group is in complete harmony with the
bronze. Panels descriptive of various phases of Indian life are attached to
the square support on which the group rests. The whole effect is realistic in
the extreme. On the pedestal is the following inscription:
TO THE
OTTAWA NATION OF INDIANS,
MY EARLY FRIENDS,
PRESENTED BY MARTIN RYERSON.
Samuel Johnston, a well-known Chicagoan, who died a few years ago, left
instructions to his executors to expend $10,000 for a statue of Shakespeare to
be placed in the park.
East of the imposing palm house, on a hill, are located the greenhouses.
Here the work of propagating the hundreds of thousands of bedding plants
that are to decorate the park in the summer months goes on "while nights are
dark and snows are white." Here are designed the plans for ornamental beds.
The greenhouse is of course under the supervision of Mr. C. Stromback. His
work is important, surely. He has able competitors in the various parks of
the other divisions of the city, and to see to it that Lincoln Park does not lag
behind in the race for floral excellence, keeps his brain and his hands busy.
All the buildings are connected and under one roof if the conventional afl'air
of iron and glass that covers a conservatory can be properly designated as such.
The propagating houses describe themselves in their name. Here are found
countless foliage plants in little pots, duplicated from one another, as they out-
grow their limits, and constantly increasing in number. The household favor-
32
ites are here all of them, as well as the varieties peculiar for their oddity as
well as beauty.
Besides all this wealth and beauty of flowers, which must be seen to be
appreciated, Lincoln Park has to offer another rare attraction upon its floral
domain, namely, two lily ponds. These are situated in the eastern portion of
the park, north of the waterworks, and they form, in a decidedly prominent
degree, an object of genuine and unstinted admiration. This feature is a wel
come novelty and deserves the highest praise.
Excepting in New York, no attempt has been made in public parks of
this country outside of Chicago to display with fullness the strange beauty of
the gorgeous specimens of lilies, that make the rivers and pools of the tropics
their home. Everyone has heard of the Victoria Regia, or Amazon lily, the
leaves of which are six feet in diameter, with blossoms fourteen inches wide.
But not everyone has seen a specimen of this giant lily.
The lily basins have been constructed after the most approved plans.
Warmth, shelter from high winds, and sunshine are necessary to ensure suc-
cess. These requisites have been found in the little valley in which the pools
are located. A bird's-eye view of the two pools, when stocked and with their
plants in bloom, will furnish a pleasure to which the western sense is unused.
There are numerous specimens of the genus Nymphaea represented, the
most celebrated of which unquestionably is the Victoria Regia. This great
lily, if properly protected, can be grown and flowered in the open air. When
first open, the flowers are pure white and produce an odor of rare fragrance,
which can best be compared to the flavor of the pineapple. After the first
night the flowers change to a pink tint, lose their fragrance, and after living
through another day they slowly sink into the water, there to ripen their seed.
A new variety of the Victoria Regia, of which a specimen will doubtless be
obtained, is crimson flowered. This plant is more robust than the white
flowered Victoria, and the young leaves are of a dark bronze color. The flow-
ers of this new variety are white on the day of opening, but change to a dark
crimson color later.
The night-blooming water lilies seven kinds open their flowers after
dark, beginning at about six o'clock and remaining expanded until about the
same time next morning. The flowers appear on stalks elevated ten or twelve
inches above the surface of the water. The Nymphaea Devoniensis is one of
the choicest of the night-blooming lilies. In one season a single plant will
cover a circle twenty feet across, with leaves twenty-five inches in diameter
and flowers that are a foot from tip to tip of petals The Nymphaea Devon-
iensis can be successfully dwarfed, if it is desired. The leaves are green with
serrated edges. The blossoms, rose red with scarlet stamens, appear to great
advantage by artificial light. We see here the Nymphaea Tuberosa and the
Odorata Rosa, whose home is in North America ; the lotus plants are of Egyp-
tian origin, the Nymphaea Candidissima is of English origin, the Flava came
from Florida, the dwarf water lily from China, the N. Devoniensis from India,
the Zanzibarensis and Dentata from Africa. The N. Sturtevanti, a new semi-
double, red water lily, is a very fine plant. Its foliage is of a light bronze
color, approaching crimson. The N. Rubra is also a native of India and it
somewhat resembles the N. Devoniensis.
It must not be supposed that all the beauties of the lily ponds, with their
abundance of glorious water plants, can be seen at one visit. Frequent trips
must be made, including night excursions, when electric lights will shed their
lustre on the night blooming lilies. Many other plants besides water lilies are
grown in and around the ponds. Water Hyacinths, Sagittarias, ornamental
rushes and grasses, with the curious floating Stratoitis and other interesting
forms of plant life, fill up the spaces not covered by the shield-like leaves of
the Nymphaea's, making altogether a grand display either by day or under
the electric lights.
Another delightful spot is the "mall," north of the Lincoln monument,
which extends for a quarter of a mile in a northerly direction and terminates
in the lower artificial park lake. Here the pedestrian rules supreme. Bor-
dered with beds of flowers, beyond which extend lawns of velvety softness, the
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mall offers as enjoyable a promenade as could be wished. Here, as in the space
between the greenhouses and the Schiller statue, the gardener's art is seen at
its best. Carefully trimmed and well cared for beds of flowers lend color to
the view as they shed fragrance abroad. Viewed from the mall, the lower
lake presents on a bright summer day an animated scene. Pleasure boats ply
here and there, laden with happy oarsmen and their friends. The Swans have
chosen for their home an island in the lower lake. Their graceful forms, as
they float about in the water, are a pleasure to the eye.
Before we turn away from the floral displays of Mr. Stromback to other
spots of interest and delight, we will take a walk through the palm house just
lately finished. This floral palace has, with the exception of the horticultural
hall at the World's Fair grounds, no peer in this entire land of ours. It is of
imposing dimensions, with its mighty arched glass roof and its gigantic pro-
portions throughout. The palm house proper is 156 feet long and 90 feet-
wide; its height is 50 feet. The conservatory, connected with the main build-
ing, is 96 feet long, 31 feet wide and 21 feet high, and the other addition, ex-
tending north from the palm house proper, giving shelter to a rare collection
of orchids, measures 100 feet in length and 30 feet in width. To this complex
of buildings another, a fernery, was added at the northeast corner. With
the exception of the foundation walls, none of these buildings contain any
other material than glass and steel, so that the light of day has full sway.
In the heating of this fine building some comparatively new features are
introduced. The hot water method has been adopted, radiating coils of one
and a quarter inch pipes will be concealed in chambers behind rock work.
The radiating pipe service is arranged in independent sections and each sec-
tion controlled by an automatic heat regulating device. The boilers being
distant from the palm house about 350 feet, leave the palm house range in its
beautiful lines clear from suggestion of shed or factory. The floor grade of
the house is established at a point six and one-half feet above the lawn surface.
Broad terraces surround the building on three sides. The front terraces com-
mand a good view of the flower garden, a broad handsome walk and stairways
lead the visitor from the flower garden up the slopes of the terraces to the
front entrance of the palm house; the plants are arranged in natural positions,
branches, flower pots and tubs are banished. A winding path leads round a
rocky point, then again across an open space, every turn revealing some new
beauty, while from certain points the whole may be taken in at a general view.
By planting out in the soil bed greater luxuriance of growth will be obtained,
the plants will the sooner produce an effect proportional to the magnificence of
their home. Harmonious arrangements of rocks were introduced to give
character to the surface of the soil. Tall palms, cyeads, tree-ferns and bam-
boos rear aloft their heads, while below are seen the shade loving ferns, mosses
and other beautiful forms of plant life, and from truss and column hang climb-
ers of many kinds, some of beautiful foliage, and others covered with flowers,
twining among the iron of the structure and covering it with a luxuriant tropi-
cal growth, blending the whole into a natural grouping of Nature's loveliest
forms.
The conservatory will be used for exhibition of plants from temperate
climes, or of plants of beautiful foliage or graceful habit of growth, requiring
temperate conditions of heat. The fernery is striking and effective in some of
its features; the design for the interior takes the form of a rocky dell with a
glass roof. A cascade was introduced, the water tumbling from rock to rock
into a pool at the bottom, while on ledges, in fissures, or on the faces of the
moss covered rocks, are planted the various beautiful forms of the fern family.
And now we will take a glance at some of the most important improve-
ments accomplished within the last few years, namely the extensive work along
the lake shore, consisting of nothing less than the building of a sea wall and
beach, which lias been carried forward under the efficient supervision of the
park Superintendent, J. A. Pettigrew. This improvement became necessary
to protect the shore along the park against the inroads of Lake Michigan. The
Fitz Simons and Connell Company, in 1874, built the first substantial break-
water, commencing at Oak Street and running to North Avenue. Upon this
36
structure, cut down (at the suggestion of General Fitz Simons to Commissioner
Adams in 1886), the present sea wall was built. The breakwater running
north from North Avenue, the present new beach improvement, was con-
structed by the above named firm in conjunction with the Green Dredging Co.
and the Chicago Dredging and Dock Co.
Commencing with a breakwater at Belle vue Place and running northward,
a large tract was taken from Lake Michigan, making possible the extension of
the Lake Shore Drive south to Oak Street; at North Ave. the scope of the work
was extended, the breakwater was curved further out into the lake, until the
plan as at present outlined, embraces on a frontage included within the park
the reclamation from Lake Michigan of about 140 acres.
In 1886 the work of construction of the sea wall began, according to the
plans of Major T. H. Handbury, Engineer Corps, U. S. A. The piling of the
breakwater was sawn off below water line, a platform of three inch oak plank
was laid across from front to back, and the work of casting the huge blocks
of concrete commenced; the magnificent blocks, each weighing nearly ten tons,
and formed out of the "Germania" brand of Portland cement, were added one
to the other, until in the fall of 1888 there stood on the breakwater an unbroken
line (extending from Bellevue to Burton Place), 2,889 feet long and 10 feet
high, presenting a massive front to the storms of Lake Michigan.
The paved beach work commences at North Ave. and is constructed from
designs by Capt. W. H. Marshall, Engineer Corps, U. S. A.; excepting the
dredging and pile driving, all the work has been done by park employees.
The breakwater facing this improvement seaward is constructed of two rows
of close pile work, 10 feet in width from outside to outside. The lakeward
row is faced to landward with close 3 inch oak-sheeting bolted to a 12x4 oak
wale, and the landward side of the landward row of piles faced landward with
Wakefield patent sheet piling, the breakwater being filled with stone and sawn
off to a point 10 inches above lake level. Landward from the breakwater rises
the paved beach 48 feet wide, rising 1 foot in 8. then rising by two steps of
one foot each to a promenade of 16 feet in width, which is further flanked on
the landward side by a parapet of two steps rising from each side, the base
being four feet six inches wide and the top two feet wide; landward of the
promenade and parallel with it is a driveway 45 feet in width, and from thence
to the inner lake or rowing course a sloping turf-covered bank planted with
trees and shrubs. The character of the work is of the most substantial descrip-
tion, the pavement of the beach being composed of granite blocks eight inches
in depth, laid on a bed of concrete six inches in depth, while the joints are run
with Portland cement grouting. The promenade and parapets are of the
finest grade of granite beton on Portland cement concrete base. The driveway
is granite faced with granite block and granite beton curbs and gutters. For
connection across the inlet a swing or drawbridge was built, so that after con-
verting Fullerton Ave. pier into a bridge connecting with the park, the drive
from North Ave. along the beach to the park at Fullerton Ave. becomes con-
tinuous and uninterrupted.
The zoological garden forms one of the most attractive features the park
possesses, and the mecca during each returning season of many thousands of
children and adults. At the present writing it numbers among its numerous
inhabitants the following: 2 African lions, 1 flying fox, 5 monkeys, 2 tigers,
2 leopards, 5 pumas, 2 wild cats, 1 lynx, 3 wolf-hounds, 2 wolfs, 22 foxes, 1
ferret, 1 wild-cat, 4 badgers, 1 otter, 13 bears, among which are 2 brown, 7
black, 2 grey and 2 cinnamon-colored, 12 coons, 143 squirrels, 4 opossums, 1
sea-lion, 22 white rats, 5 beavers, 2 porcupines, 10 wood-cocks, 20 guinea-pigs,
24 rabbits and hares, 50 prairie dogs, 10 buffaloes, 1 wild goat, 15 cashmere
goats, 7 mooses or elks, 1 fallow-deer, 11 Virginia roes, 1 lama, 1 elephant, 1
elk, 1 jaguar, 1 Turkish eagle, 17 eagles, 7 buzzards, 18 owls, 3 magpies, 4
parrots, 3 cockatoos, 12 ring-doves, 19 peacocks, 3 pheasants, 4 quails, 2 cranes,
3 hawks, 11 white geese, 7 white swans, 3 pelicans, 20 turtles, 15 crocodiles,
2 lizards, 3 rattle snakes and 1 land turtle.
During the Spring of 1878 the Board converted the pier at North Avenue
to the uses of a Floating Hospital; constructing proper guards and appropriate
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shelter for little children. Upwards of five thousand ailing children visited
this resort annually and found health in the refreshing breezes from the lake.
In some instances mothers have come \viththeirbabesat sunrise and tarried all
day. A steamer made regular trips between the city and the pier during the
season. Medical attendance, competent nurses and pure milk were furnished
by the Floating Hospital Association. This floating hospital was abandoned
some years ago, but since that time a much larger and more useful one has been
established by the managers of the "Daily News" Fresh Air Fund. This sani-
tarium can be found near the lake shore at the foot of Belden Avenue. The
present Commissioners of Lincoln Park are: Wm. C. Goudy, President; Charles
S. Kirk, John V. Clark, jr., R. A. Waller and August Heuer; E. S. Taylor, is
the Secretary and C. J. Blair, Treasurer.
New Palm House in Lincoln Park.
40
THE SOUTH PARK SYSTEM.
In the year 1865 there was some talk of establishing a public Park some-
where in the South Division of Chicago, but the proposition did not assume
definite shape till the Autumn of 1866. Pri&r to the meeting of the General
Assembly several meetings were held at which the question was discussed. It
was thought advisable to make the effort. The City had no old Cemetery to
donate, and the land for the Park would have to be purchased outright. The
gentlemen most prominent at that time in the agitation of the question were
Thomas Hoyne, Governor William Bross, J. Y. Scammon, H. H, Honore, Paul
Cornell, J. Irving Pierce, L. B. bid way, Chauncey T. Bo wen, Judge John M.
Wilson, John D. Jennings.
Governor Bross was very enthusiastic about it. He had made the ac-
quaintance of Fred Law Olmsted, the great American landscape artist, who
had made a wonderful success of Central Park, New York, and the "Deacon",
as he was then called infused much sentiment into the scheme. There was a
beautiful tract of land known as Egandale, lying west of Cottage Grove Ave-
nue, and north of 55th St. which through the sentiment and enterprise of the
late Dr. William B. Egan had become almost a perfected Park. It was
planted abundantly with evergreens and other trees, was laid out with beauti-
ful drives and in a general way was looked upon by the public as a desirable
"catch" for Park purposes. Ezra B. McCagg, partner of Mr. Scammon, pre-
pared 'a bill for the establishment of a Park, which substantially absorbed
"Egandale." The 25th General Assembly convened in January, 1867, and
the bill was duly introduced. But opposition was manifested at once. The
estate of Dr. Egan had by foreclosures, substantially passed into the control
of the Smith's of Chicago and the Drexel's of Philadelphia, and accordingly
there appeared on the scene as representatives of those interested, Mr. Norman
Williams and Mr. Norman C. Perkins, gentlemen well selected to protect their
clients' interests. The Egandale interests wanted a Park, but wanted no part
of Egandale taken. They wanted Egandale to front on the Park, all around,
or on as many sides as possible. The outsiders did not want their land taken,
but were very desirous Egandale should be, for as they said, it was already a
Park. The general public looked on with various degrees of interest. Some
favored Egandale, some opposed any park scheme. Some said Egandale was
too far away from the city ( ! ) The Press expressed all kinds of opinions there
were many battles fought, all harmless, but there was sufficient confusion and
quarreling to bring matters to a dead-lock. At last a conference was held at
the Leland House one Saturday evening. It was a circus. Besides the curious
lookers-on, there were present Chauncey Bowen, S. S. Hayes, H. H. Honore,
James P. Root, Gen. George W. Smith, Gov. Bross, Melville W. Fuller, J.
Irving Pierce, Norman C, Perkins, Norman Williams, J. K. C. Forrest, Paul
Cornell, John C. Dore and Frank Eastman, both senators, the members of the
House from the south side, and others whose names do not now occur to the
writer. It was a stormy meeting. Everybody tried to be wise and amiable,
and everybody had a mad fit. At last the bill was passed around for amend-
ment and a compromise was affected. Egandale consented to the taking of
a strip from the west side along Cottage Grove Avenue, and a strip from the
south side along 55th street. It was deemed advisable to get to the lake, so
it was agreed that there should be a strip to Lake Michigan. Mr. Root agreed
to the arrangement provided he could locate the south line of the strip, which
he did as it gave him three hundred feet front on the strip. Others fixed lines
with reference to their own property, and everybody became hilariously
happy the whole matter was referred to George W. Smith and James P.
Root, to prepare a satisfactory bill. No one ever saw the bill after it left
their hands until it was introduced in the legislature. The account of that
meeting was written by Mr. Forrest, and by Melville W. Fuller, which ap-
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peared in the "Chicago Times" the following Monday. While the authors
of the report adhered to the fact, they let nothing of a Pickwickian character
escape them. The Bill became a law. It was required to be submitted to
the people at the annual Town Meeting in South Chicago, Hyde Park and
Lake. Many of the people who had not been educated up to a high apprecia-
tion of the benefits of a grand Park, voted against it, and were joined by
others who thought the whole thing was a real estate steal. The election was
close, and the scheme probably carried in fact, but by reason of some confus-
ion as to the ballot the result was declared against the Park. Mr. Thomas
Hoyne, then an earnest advocate of a park system, contested the matter in
the Courts, but the result finally was a miscarriage.
In 1868, the question of a park was again agitated. The same gentlemen
and others interested met often, sometimes in secret, and once in a while in
public. The matter was discussed in every real estate office in Chicago. All
kinds of parks were marked out on the maps. The papers would announce
that a park had been agreed on, and when the public became advised of the
location, a howl would go up all along the line. The promoters of the park,
however, substantially agreed on the location, and the ground was designated
in the act, which was prepared by Judge Beckwith, About the* time the Gen-
eral Assembly convened, the question was discussed as to who should intro-
duce the Bill. As the park was on the south side, it was appropriate that it
should be a south side member, and as the land. was. nearly, if not all, in Mr.
Francis Munson's district, he was selected. There was no particular opposition
to the bill. James P. Root was Clerk of the House, and he saw to it, that
there was no unnecessary delay. It passed, became a law, was submitted
to the people, and carried by a good substantial majority.
No one person has ever claimed to be the discoverer of the. South Park
system, but each has ever been ready to accord to the other his full mead of
praise.
The West and North sides were out in force looking after their park in-
terests, and when the General Assembly adjourned, three park systems were
provided for. At the same session ( 1869) the " Lake Front " Bill was intro-
duced. The public is too well advised of its purport to give here any details
concerning it, but it may be well to consider, what connection there was be-
tween the park bills and the lake front bill.
As has been seen, the park interests from the three divisions of the city
were in Springfield in force. They had prearranged their various interests,
and of course were patent factors in the matter of legislation. The promoters
of the lake front interest understood this very well, and either to secure the
co-operation of the Park interest, or at least not to antagonize it, shrewdly
provided that, when what remained as the property of the city after the Illi-
nois Central Co. had taken what it wanted, should be sold, the proceeds should
be divided among the several parks in proportion to the assessed value of prop-
erty in the respective divisions of the city. The lake front bill became a law,
and its subsequent history is known to all. None of the parks ever derived
any benefit from it.
By the way, the land was not purchased any too soon, for at present prices
a park would have been impossible. Some of the prices at the time seemed
extravagant. By the push, the enterprise, the public spirit of Chicago's cit-
izens, we have an estate, whose value financially, aesthetically and sanitarily
can never be estimated.
The selection of these lands was made within the time specified by the
act establishing the South Park. Immediately thereafter the lands were
examined and diligent inquiry was made in relation to their value. The
probable cost of the lands was estimated at $1,865,740 and an application was
made to the Circuit Court for the appointment of three assessors to assess
the amount upon the property benefited. This application was refused and
then the Supreme Court was asked for a mandamus, which was granted.
Thereupon the Circuit Court appointed assessors who entered, immediately,
upon the performance of their duties. About this time a nursery was
established containing about five acres and over 60,000 tr^es, from 1 to 4
inches in diameter, were set out. They consisted of Maple, Elm, Sycamore,
44
Beach, Butternut, Cherry, Balsam, Linden, Ash, Birch, Arbor Vitae, Pine
and Hemlock and besides these there were purchased over 6,000 choice
Evergreens from three to seven feet high. This nursery for the future sup-
ply of trees and shrubs and the work performed therein proved very inter-
esting to many of the visitors and for that reason it was made accessible to
the public, but it is now a thing of the past, for it had to make room for the
World's Fair Buildings along Midway Plaisance, and only a small portion of
this tree school could be preserved.
The South Park system embraces the World's Fair site and contains
much more territory than all the other parks put together. Like the Com-
missions of Lincoln Park and the West Parks, the Board of South Park
Commissioners was organized in 1869, by authority of an act of the Legisla-
ture, approved April 16th, of that year.
To defray the cost of acquiring the private property within the limits
named in the act, a special assessment was levied upon all real property in the
South Town of Chicago, Village of Hyde Park and Town of Lake, propor-
tioned according to benefits to the property on account of the location of the
Parks and Boulevards. The assessment was divided into eight annual install-
ments. For improvement and maintenance an annual levy is made upon all
property assessed in the three towns named, which is collected with the
annual State and County Tax.
The management of the Parks is vested in five Commissioners appointed
by the judges of the Circuit Court of Cook County; the term of office is five
years, one Commissioner being appointed each year. The Commissioners
constitute a municipal corporation, having exclusive jurisdiction over the
Parks and Boulevards.
In April 1869 Governor Palmer appointed as Commissioners the follow-
ing gentlemen : John M. Wilson, George W. Gage, Chauncey T. Bowen, L.
B. Sidway and Paul Cornell. This Commission commenced its labors by
selecting the land designated by the act and the cost of which was at first
estimated at $1,865,750. After the appointment of assessors, however, it was
found that the land required would cost a sum much larger than the original
estimate. Thereupon it was decided to increase the assessment to $8,320,-
000, and to issue bonds for the full amount of $2 000,000. The majority of
the bonds were sold in New York and from them together with those that
were used in part payment for the acquired land, the Board realized
$1,827 399.
In 1869 the landscape gardeners Olmstead & Vaux, of New York, were
employed to furnish plans and specifications for improvement of the park
grounds. Then work was begun in earnest and carried on with great vigor,
when the great fire of 1871 put a stop to the* operations. The headquarters
of the Commission were burned and with them all the original plans and
specifications, the records, atlases of the towns of Hyde Park and Lake,
vouchers, contracts, estimates, assessment rolls, etc. Actual work had, how-
ever, progressed too far to allow a long interruption of the undertaking. In
the year following new boulevards were laid out and graded, and in Sep-
tember 1872 H. W. S. Cleveland was appointed landscape gardener. To the
plans furnished by Messrs. Olmstead & Vaux there was this objection raised,
that the expense of constructing the Parks and Boulevards in the manner
they had indicated, would involve an outlay far beyond the means at com-
mand ; so it was decided to retain the main features of their plans modified,
however, so as to produce the best possible effects by judiciously arranging
and planting trees and shrubs and making the least expensive lakes and
water-ways, without the use of statuary, stonework or costly buildings. While
public parks are intended to afford the means of pleasant and heal'hful re-
creation to all classes and conditions of people, it was considered of the ut-
most importance that all improvements should be made with the especial
view of affording the greatest facilities for their use, by persons who are
compelled to spend the whole year in the city, and to whom extensive groves
and lawns are of far more value than expensive drives, which cannot be used
Washington Park.
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to any great extent, except by persons of means. The only portion of the
park territory that had been made accessible to the public was the northern
neck of what was known as the Upper Division, but during 1874 the work
was hastened along rapidly, although the Commission found itself hampered
in various ways in regard to the financial management of this public enter-
prise. About 200 acres of the western portion of the park were put under
cultivation and then already open air concerts were given weekly in a
temporary music pavilion under the direction of Hans Balatka. On these
occa^ons the attendance was so large, that the adjoining grounds had to be
thrown open to the public. These open air concerts were as early as 1874
attended by immense crowds of visitors and would have drawn still larger
numbers of people, if the fare by street cars from the city would have been
reduced from fifteen to five cents the present charge. During 1874 the third
new greenhouse was built and a botanical garden established, which again
was abandoned three years later, so as to avoid the large and constantly
increasing outlay necessary for its maintenance.
That part of the park, lying between Fifty-sixth and Sixty-seventh streets,
Stony Island ave. and Lake Michigan (now Jackson Park and the site of the
World's Fair) was originally named Lake Park, the western portion West Park
and a tract of twenty acres at the intersection of Western ave. and Pavilion
(now Garfield) boulevard, was given the name of Gage Park in memory of
George W. Gage, one of the original members of the Commission.
The entire amount of land purchased was 1045 acres and up to 1875 I \C
nearly four-fifths of the west division of the park had been improved; the
four main boulevards, Grand, Drexel, Garfield and Oakwoodwere completed
and Midway Plaisance had been constructed. The floral department was
given in charge of Mr. Fred. Kanst, a gardener of great efficiency and an
adept in the art of lawn decoration. During the following years unimproved
sections of the territory were brought under cultivation and by December 1,
1880, the Board had acquired title to all the lands required for park purposes
and some 200 acres more in the eastern portion. The Commission had to
wade through a great deal of annoying litigation, which arose from the
various conflicting claims of numerous land owners and agents.
As years rolled by West Park became Washington Park, and Lake
Park was named Jackson Park, while the memory of Garfield was honore4
by changing the name of Pavilion boulevard to Garfield boulevard. In 1884
the coostruction of a pavement beach and sea wall was commenced in Jackson
Park, so as to protect the shore against the inroads of Lake Michigan. It is
now finished and forms a fit subject for admiration ; it consists of a lime-
stone pavement, which has an average width of forty feet and is composed
of blocks averaging twelve inches in depth, laid upon two inches of lake
gravel ; at the landward edge of the pavement is set a lime-stone curbing
and immediately back of this is a concrete flag walk twelve feet in width, for
which the "Germania" brand of Portland Cement was used, adjoining a fifty
foot drive. The top of the curbing at the back edge of the beach pavement
is eight feet seven inches above city datum, being six feet six inches above
water level. The surface of the pavement rises from front to rear, not on a
regular incline, but in a curved line similar to that formed by the waves upon
a sand beach.
The vfry first attempt at shore protection of a substantial character was
made in 1874 at the Fifty-ninth street inlet to Jackson Park and resulted in
the building of a north- and south-pier, which has formed the inlet up to the
present time. Fitz Simons and Counell constructed about six thousand feet
of breakwater, commencing at Fifty sixth street and running to the present
entrance to the World's Fair grounds. This sloping breakwater has proved a
great success and, when kept clean of sand and debris, it forms a lovely
margin to the blue waters of the lake. Mr. J. Frank Foster, the general
superintendent of the South Parks, was the engineer of the work and to him
is due largely the credit of having designed so effective and beautiful a shore
improvement, as this one has become to be.
In 1876 a part of Washington Park was used as a pasture for a flock of
South-down sheep, numbering sixty-eight, but this feature of park-life was
soon after discarded.
Quite early in the history of the South Parks the Board entertained the
desire to secure control of Michigan ave. and Thirty-fifth street (from Grand
boulevard to Michigan avenue), as those streets would form an important
link between the City and the Park system. The cost of improving Michi-
gan boulevard so as to harmonize with the character of the other boulevards
was estimated at $551,063 and after years of litigation and vexations delay the
Commission has at last succeeded in improving the entire length of Michigan
ave., from Jackson street to Washington Park, making it one of the finest
pleasure drives in the world. About the time parks were decided upon for
this city, Dr. G. H. Rauch, for many years the Secretary of the Illinois State
Board of Health, in a paper read before the Academy of Sciences of this
city, discussed in a very lucid and instructive manner the influence of public
parks upon the moral, physical and sanitary condition of the inhabitants of
large cities, and although many people may be familiar with the subject in
question, it has such an intimate bearing upon the matter presented in this
book, that we deem it deairable to republish a short extract therefrom.
After a brief account of the parks in the chief cities of the world, Dr.
Rauch goes more fully into the question as it affects the citizens of Chicago
and presents many interesting facts regarding its situation and physical re-
lations. Located on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, the land that
stretches back from it is almost as flat and low as the lake itself. The average
elevation for five miles around is but, twelve feet above the water level, while
a large portion of the ground is depressed and swampy, with but little
drainage. The land upon which the city stands is the ancient bed of the lake
(which has receded far below its former level), and consists of sand-banks,
clay-beds, and vegetable mould. From the flatness of the region winds have
an unbroken sweep, as there are no mountains, hills, or forests to arrest
them. In an area of four hundred square miles surrounding Chicago, there
are hardly twenty square miles thinly covered with timber. But, as even the
enterprise of Chicago is inadequate to build mountains, and as hills also are
very expensive, the city has but one way left to protect itself against its
special exposure, and that is, to surround itself with artificial forests.
Another aspect of the subject to which Dr. Rauch draws attention, is the
sanitary influence of trees and foliage, the relations of climate to disease and
of the parks to mental hygiene, and the special need which so overexcited a
people as those of Chicago have for every kind of recreation and diversion.
"We need parks to induce out-door exercise, and for the pleasant influences
connected with them, which are so beneficial to our over-worked business
men, to dyspeptics, to those afflicted with nervous diseases, and, particularly,
to the consumptive. We need parks for our school children, as we have no
places to which they can resort for out-of-door play, and where they can
obtain healthful recreation, with the exception of the limited grounds sur-
rounding the school-houses."
"The moral influence of the parks is decided. Man is brought in contact
with Nature is taken away from the artificial conditions in which he lives
in cities ; and such associations exercise a vast influence for good."
Dr. Rauch has indeed spoken the truth and the uses of our parks as a
means of popular intellectual improvement, and their importance as an edu-
cational agency in connection with the great school system of this city, are
by no means yet fully recognized. Their rich array of trees, shrubs, and
flowers, in their season, are not only objects of attention from their varied
beauty, but they minister to a still further and most important use as objects
of engaging study to the youth of the schools of Chicago.
The South Parks became more of a resort for the general public after
the cable lines in Cottage Grove avenue and State street were completed a
few short years ago ; previously, on account of the long distance lying be-
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tween them and the thickly populated districts of the city and the difficulty
people, not owners of private conveyances and unable to patronize livery
stables, experienced in getting there, these parks principally formed the
destination of the upper tendom, the wealthy and fashionable, whose elegant
equipages and turnouts thronged the boulevards and park driveways. There
the richly attired ladies and stylish looking gentlemen reigned supreme and
the common people did not block their way. Thanks to the extension of the
afore mentioned cable car-lines way beyond the southern limits of the park
territory and to the facilities afforded by the trains of the Illinois Central and
the Elevated railway, all leading to these health giving pleasure grounds,
men, women and children on foot are now largely in the majority in the
South Parks. Especially gratifying is it to witness the signs of joy and
happiness, which the little ones seem to feel when brought out here among
the green trees and beautiful flowers, where their pale cheeks at once assume
a healthier color, their limbs greater elasticity. Even the most distant quart-
ers of the city send large delegations of tenement-house occupants, dwellers
in unhealthy, disease-breeding basements to the shady meadows of the South
Parks, where they spend many happy hours in the enjoyment of the blessings
that kind nature and the handiwork of man have spread out before them in
such glorious profusion. As early as 1873 it was found desirable to increase
the attractions of Washington Park, by providing a place of resort forchildren
and families who came by cars and were seeking their pleasure within such
distances as were easily accessible on foot. To meet this want, a ramble was
designed and laid out immediately south of thft entrance from Drexel Boule-
vard and adjacent to the car track on Cottage Grove avenue. The effect of
intricacy and variety was secured by means of irregular plantations of shrub-
bery, to form thickets and copses, interspersed with bits of open ground or
broad lawn to serve as play grounds for children. The paths wind about
among these scenes, opening new vistas or views at every turn and conveying
the impression of a much more extended area than it actually occupies.
We have already endeavored to convey some idea of what the South
Parks were, when they were first laid out and came into the hands of the Com-
missioners, who by the way receive no pay for their services. Since then the
improvements have been steadily going forward. Excellent drives, and
walks, and bridle paths, and artificial lakes have been constructed and beauti-
ful trees, and shrubs, and evergreens have been judiciously planted to give
character and variety to the meadows and lawns ; no touch of the landscape
gardener could add very considerably to the fresh appearance of its glades
and groves, and cool secluded nooks. The public knows how to prize the
noble sycamores, the stately maples, the superb catalpas and the large variety
of other magnificent trees, that adorn Washington Park and the boulevards.
In short, the transformation of these grounds from a sandy waste to beautiful
flower gardens, lawns and shady retreats ever was and still is a great surprise
to the public.
In the Park the passing observer is very strongly impressed with the
manner in which everchanging views are successively opened before him ;
views, which possess every quality of complete and impressive landscape
compositions. As an authority on landscape gardening remarks : "Other forms
of natural scenery stir the observer to warmer admiration, but it is doubtful
if any and certain that none which under ordinary circumstances man of set
purpose can induce nature to supply him, are equally soothing and refreshing ;
equally adapted to stimulate simple, natural and wholesome tastes and fancies,
and thus to draw the mind from absorption in the interest of an intensely
artificial habit of life."
In the improvement of this territory attractive and picturesque scenery
has been formed and accommodations were prepared for great n umbers of
people, each class of which is led to enjoy and benefit by the scenery without
preventing or seriously detracting from the enjoyment of it by all others. To
repeat, the scenery of Washington Park is diversified and it commands fine
distant views. These advantages and its exemption from factory smoke or
52
foul smells compensate for the necessity the citizens are under to travel a
number of miles to reach it.
Every thing is useful just in proportion as it in some way adds to human
enjoyments and the Park is certainly one of the foremost things, that give
pleasure to human beings.
Its civilizing and humanizing influence is something wholly incalculable.
The visitors belong to every class and grade of society, and yet every one
seems there to be on his good behaviour. The Commissioners have kept
steadily in view the one object of making it a pleasure ground; admitting
nothing, which would interfere with this, prohibiting nothing which would
conduce to it. The regulation formerly quite generally in use in all of our
parks: "Keep off the grass," is one of the things of the past in this Park, and
any one who has seen the glee with which men, women and children repose
or play upon the soft velvet sward, will see how much the actual enjoyment
of the Park is enhanced by permitting the free use of the lawns. The toil-
worn artisan, his weary wife and pining children are, thanks to the wise fore-
thought of the Commissioners, assured that on any bright summer or autumn
day they will find sward and shade open to them.
Everything done here is done according to the best rules of the land-
scape gardeners art; in the process of grouping as well as in the endeavor
to secure those fine contrasts of color which by a proper selection of trees and
shrubs, the autumn foliage can be made to display.
According to these rules the Park shows principally the character of
free and unrestricted nature, where the hand of man should not be noticed
except through well kept walks and drives and the judicious distribution
of buildings. The extensive territory Washington and Jackson Park occupy,
of which the former contains 371, the latter 586 acres, whereto 100 acres
must be added covered by Midway Plaisance, made the construction of
park lands possible on a much larger and more imposing scale, than could
be done in either of the other four large parks of the city. If it was possible
to lift them up and carry them to the South Parks, they would all of them
easily find room within the boundaries of Washington and Jackson Park. In
the western part of Washington Park, near the entrance from Garfield boule-
vard, is situated an open lawn containing one hundred acres, which the Com-
missioners have turned over to those fond of playing "lawn tennis," "cricket"
and similar out-door sports; the Commissioners even, went so far in their
praiseworthy anxiety to please the public and make people feel happy, as to
purchase the articles necessary for such amusements and to loan them out to
the players. This character of open park scenery of wood without under-
growth and of lawn irregularly bounded by groups of large trees is pre-
served in Washington Park throughout id order that it might be left open to
the public at all times, by day and by night, without risk of such abuse of its
privileges as might exist, if exclusion and concealment were secured by the
presence of thickets and copses of shrubbery. The wisdom of such provision
for the future, when the neighborhood of the park becomes thickly inhabited,
is obvious.
In the immediate vicinity of the aforesaid western park-entrance Mr.
Kanst, the head gardener, has obtained very picturesque effects by means of
climbing plants, which have crept up over tall tree stumps, from where they
droop down in graceful garlands or stretch across shady paths to trees on the
other side, thereby forming a canopy of rich foliage.
South of the large baseball lawn lies the glittering park-lake, covering
an area of about twenty acres. Its green shore stretches around in graceful
curves, where stately trees throw their deep shadows upon the mirror like
surface of the water; upon these shores beautiful flowers bloom in great
variety and children love to roam and play.
The paths and driveways through the park are without any exception
laid out in such a manner, that each one of them will lead the traveler to the
most advantageous points of view.
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Crossing over to the extreme eastern portion of Washington Park we find
here the Palm House and just west of it, in the centre of a circuitious drive-
way, the floral display of Mr. Kanst, his pride and the joy of the public. To
get a glimpse of this panorama of flowers and plastic floral designs is indeed
worth a journey from a distance. We will not attempt a description of the
various figures, emblems, floral fancies as they should be called, carpet-beds
rich in colors and unique in design, for everybody interested in flowers and
floral decorations, every lover of the sweet-scented children of flora, should
personally visit this highly fascinating spot. It required not less than 300,000
plants and flowers to embroider and embellish these emerald lawns, in which
number however are included many thousands that were used for beautify-
ing the center of Drexel boulevard and the surroundings of the Drexel
fountain at the southern end of said boulevard. A remarkable piece of work
and a triumph of art among many floral masterpieces was a portrait of General
Grant, which was executed by Mr. Kanst in the spring of 1885 and elicited
much favorable and well deserved comment. The interior of the palmhouse
-with its large variety of tropical and semi-tropical plants will also prove highly
interesting to the visitor. Before we take our departure from this beautiful
park let us not forget to take a look at the lily-ponds, situated only a few
paces south of the palm house; here, among the numerous specimens of the
family of water lilies we also behold several fully developed Virginia Regia's,
the queenly sea-rose of the tributaries of the Amazon river. It truly deserves
to be ranked among the foremost objects of interest and admiration in the floral
kingdom, and for those who gather around these ponds with their array of
lotus-plants and water-lilies, natives of China, Japan, Africa, Egypt and our
own country, it forms the centre of attraction.
We find here Nymphaea odorata, N. alba, N. tuberosa, N. dentata, N-
rubra and other species, but, as before remarked, the grandest of them all is
the Victoria Regia. Though it was discovered by the botanist Haenke as
early as 1801 and scientifically described by Professor Poeppig of Leipzic
in 1832, it was not named till 1838, when Lindley dedicated it to his sovereign,
and in 1850 it was for the first time introduced into cultivation through the
efforts of the traveler Spruce.
The gigantic circular leaves of this wondrous plant measure six feet and
more in diameter and have a turned up margin as a border from two to five
inches high, giving the leaf the resemblance to a huge tray or salver. The
upper surface of this leaf is of a rich green color, while the lower surface
shows a purple or violet color and is traversed by ridge-like veins or ribs,
which radiate from the centre and are connected by ribs running crossways,
so that the entire surface below is divided into air-compartments, which give
the leaf great carrying power. By placing a board upon one to distribute
the weight, it is capable of holding a child from 10 to 12 years of age.
The life of the flower is of short duration, lasting only two days. It opens
late in the afternoon and remains open about twelve hours ; during that
period it is cup-shaped, from 12 to 16 inches across, with hundreds of pure
white petals and very fragrant. The second day the flower again opens
towards evening, but it now presents an entirely different appearance, for
the petals are changed to a rosy pink color, and reflexed in the shape of a
coronet, but now odorless. Towards morning the flower again closes, never
again to open, and during the day it sadly sinks back into its watery bed, there
to ripen its seed.
The maintenance of this grand system of parks: police protection, repairs
of roads and footpaths, transplanting of trees, etc., last year required over
$200,000, which figures explain better than a detailed description of the work
done inside of one year for the good of the public can do, the amount of labor
that has ben performed.
For those, who are the fortunate owners of a buggy or carriage or who
possess the means for hiring one, a drive along the broad and well kept boule-
vards leading north from Washington Park into the heart of the city, or west,
where the boulevard systems of the South Parks and the West Parks join
hands, will surely prove a most enjoyable one. Those leading north are Drexel
boulevard, Grand boulevard, Oakwood boulevard, Thirty-fifth street boulevard
and Michigan boulevard. Drexel boulevard is 200 feet wide; it starts from
Washington Park at Fifty-first street near Cottage Grove ave. and terminates at
Thirty- ninth street, a point 1% miles north. It consists of a double roadway,
embracing a central ornamental space 100 feet wide, arranged with paths,
grass plots, magnificent floral decorations, and planted with trees and shrubs.
Elegant and costly residences line this magnificent boulevard on both sides,
during the year 1882 the Drexel Brothers of Philadelphia presented to the
Commissioners a costly and superb bronze fountain in memory of their father,
after whom also the beautiful Boulevard is named. This fountain is located
at the turn of saidBoulevard at Fifty-first street and is massive, unique and of
beautiful design and workmanship. It is crowned by a life size bronze statue
of Drexel. From the northern terminus of this boulevard Oakwood boulevard,
a hundred feet wide, extends half a mile west to Grand boulevard, which has
a width of 198 feet the entire length from Washington Park (at Fifty- first
street) north to Thirty-fifth street, which is exactly two miles. Grand boule-
vard is on the line with South Park ave., which connects at Fifty-fifth street
with Garfield boulevard. It comprises a central drive-way, 55 feet wide, with
a grass border 20 feet on each side, planted with rows of trees and separating
it from the side roads, which are intended for business traffic. Going north in
Grand boulevard we at its northern end enter Thirty -fifth street ; for a distance
of barely % of a mile, from Grand boulevard west to Michigan boulevard,
this street is under the control of the Park Board as a necessary link between
all the afore mentioned boulevards and Michigan boulevard, which latter
leads to the business centre of the city. This boulevard is now finished its
entire length, from Fifty-fifth street (Garfield boulevard) to Jackson street, a
distance of 5% miles, and as a street of palatial residences it has no superior
in this or any other country.
A delightful pleasure drive is afforded those, who will select Garfield
boulevard (Fifty-fifth street) where it emerges from Washington Park, for a
visit to the West Park system. The road here naturally leads us in a westerly
direction past fine residences and stores far out into the open country, where
dwelling houses as yet are thinly scattered.
Garfield and Western avenue boulevards, the connecting links, have a
length of over six miles and the greater part of the way they pass through
wide stretches of prairie, which as far as the eye can reach is profusely stud-
ded with lovely wild flowers, who merrily bow and nod in the breezes.
That part of the boulevard, which leads from Washington Park directly
west over Fifty-fifth street, is called Garfield boulevard in honor of our
lamented President, James A. Garfield.
It has a uniform width of 200 feet and is lined on both sides of the main
drive way with three rows of shade trees. At the intersection of Western
ave., which is distant 3% miles from the point where Garfield boulevard
emerges from Washington Park, the boulevard turns north and follows in the
road of Western avenue, from which it has taken its name, for a distance of
2.81 miles, until it reaches the Illinois and Michigan Caual, where it crosses
by means of a neat drawbridge, constructed by the South Park Commissioners.
Between Fifty-fifth street and this Canal the boulevard is enclosed along the
western border for long distances by beautiful shrubs and small groves,
that lend an additional charm to the landscape, through which the road
passes. We behold here a natural garden, in which we can not fail to see
the painstaking care of the gardener with sprinkling cart and pruning knife.
North of Thirty-ninth street the boulevard passes through Brighton Park,
where a small but very picturesque flower garden enhances the beauty of the
immediate vicinity and where stately elms and catalpas throw their cool
shade over rustic spats and lovely walks. Western avenue boulevard is 200
feet wide, the same as Garfield boulevard.
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AREAS AND DISTANCES, S. PARKS AND BOULEVARDS.
Total
Area.'
Acres.
Total
Length
Miles.
Imp'v'd
Drives
Miles.
Jackson (East) Park
586
1.50
Washington (West) Park
371
606
Gage Park
20
Midway Plaisance
80
1 38
Grand boulevard, 198 ft. wide
2.00
355
Drexel boulevard, 200 ft. wide
1 48
305
Oakwood boulevard, 100 ft. wide
.50
.50
Michigan avenue boulevard
5.73
3.73
Thirty-fifth street boulevard
.32
.32
Garfield boulevard, 200 ft. wide. . ....
3.50
3.75
Western ave. boulevard, 200 ft. wide
2.81
1.29
Fifty-seventh st. boulevard, 100 ft. wide
.03
.03
Totals
1057
16.37
25.16
The present Commissioners are the following gentlemen : Joseph Don-
nersberger, President ; Martin J.Russell, Auditor; John B. Sherman, William
Best and J. W. Ellsworth. H. W. Harmbn ls ; Secretary and John R. Walsh,.
Treasurer.
GO
THE WEST CHICAGO PARKS.
The first Board of West Chicago Park Commissioners consisted of the
following gentlemen: Geo. W. Stanford, President; E. F. Runyan, Auditor;
Isaac R. Hitt, Clark Lipe, David Cole, Chas. C. P. Holden and Henry Greene-
baum. Treasurer. The act of legislature creating this board was approved
Feb. 27, 1869. The commissioners were not appointed by the Governor, how-
ever, until April 26, nearly two months later. The labor incident to selecting
the lands necessary for the Parks and public grounds contemplated by the law
creating the board, and acquiring the title to the same, was greater than was
at first anticipated; the conflicting interests of real estate owners and the de-
mands and necessities of the public were to be harmonized. While the law
prescribed the limits within which these Parks should be located, still the par-
ticular locality within these limits was a matter left to the discretion and
judgment of the board.
By a resolution adopted June 25, 1869, the preliminary labor of selecting
or designating locations for these public improvements was devolved upon a
special committee of three, consisting of Messrs. GREENEBATJM, HITT, and
RUNYAN, who spent some time and labor in securing to the public, locations
for these Parks which should be accessible to the great mass of the people
over some public means of travel, and still be within such distance of the bus-
iness and residence portion of the city as to be readily accessible to pedestrians
and carriages.
Under the law, the board was required to locate and establish a Boulevard
running from the north branch of the Chicago river, commencing at a point
north of Fullerton Avenue, running thence west, one mile or more west of
Western Avenue, and thence southerly, with such curves and deviations as
the board should deem expedient, to the Chicago,Burlingtonand Quincy railroad
line, and on line of said Boulevard to establish three Parks: the north Park to
be in size not less than 200 acres, to cost not to exceed $250,000, to be located
north of Kinzie Street; the middle Park to be located between Kinzie and
Harrison Street, to be in size not less than 100 acres, and to cost not to exceed
$400,000; the southern Park to be not less than 100 acres in size, and to cost
not to exceed $250,000, to be located south of Harrison Street, and north of
the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad line, the aggregate cost of Parks
and Boulevards not to exceed $1,050,000.
It will be seen that the power of the board was so prescribed by limitations
and restrictions, that the selecting and procuring of the lands within the limits
designated, and for the price or cost indicated, and at the same time within a
reasonable distance of the residence portion of 'the city, was a problem of no
easy solution.
It is only by remembering the sandy desert out beyond the former west-
ern limits of our city, and the marshy prairie land of the years gone by that
one can realize the wonders that have been worked in making this seeming
Nature what it is. That thickets and trees abound; that vines clamber up
over trellises and the walls of the great palm houses; that calm lakes reflect
the blue heavens or white clouds; that Nature has been tamed and civilized
and her ruggedness and her softness woven into a garment for the earth this
can only be appreciated by remembering how all this territory looked in 1869
or by seeing how some of the adjacent similar lots and acres look now. The
supply of this city with pure lake water was the noblest labor, but the gift of
its great lungs or breathing places ranks next. They are favorite resorts at
all seasons of the year. In summer, there is the leafy quiet and almost breath-
The Hiimbolilt Monument in Humboldt Park.
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less stillness of the summer-woods; there is the drowsy hum of the bee, and
ceaseless whir-r-r of the humming-bird's wing, as it poises in air before a
flower its little body of green and gold. There is the sweet monotony of the
splash of fountains or ripple of little cascades, lulling the senses into half-for-
getfulness, till one dreams that the noisy city has ceased to exist, and that the
enchanted gardens of some new Alhambra environ him forever. There is the
deep green of the grass, the darker emerald of the leaves, the density of vines
and thickets, the faint perfume of summer flowers; and in the holy hush of
imitated Nature the rabbit lifts it great ears and eyes without fear, the splen-
did peacock suns its great eye-embroidered fan and the stately swans sit motion-
less on the water, like birds of snow in realms of blue, and await the pleasure
of the goddess of the lake.
In autumn, when the spirit of the breeze has invaded the sylvan solitudes,
. and the genii of the season have fired each thicket with gold and crimson, and
strewed the grass with the purpling spoils of all the trees ; when the vases
overflow with floral treasures and the song-birds wake up to pipe a farewell
to the flowers; when the enchanted summer-sleep is broken by the first breath
of the spirit of the north and the quick-moving children come to look brighter
than the birds and sweeter than the passing flowers the great Parks are a
thing of beauty still.
When winter comes to spread her broad white mantle over the grave of
the dead grass and shelter with her cold beauty the delicate roots of the flowers;
when the delicate birds and animals ( of Lincoln Park ) are also sheltered and
the lakes harden their bosoms into ice; when beautiful girls and strong men
buckle on the steel wings to their feet, and the swiftly-darting forms look like
the broken fragments of some rainbow of humanity; when the short winter-
day has furled itself in the blue blankets of the night and the great moon looks
down to flood the white landscape with pale glory and tip every barren branch
with silver; or when the modest light of stars hesitates in rivalry with brighter
eyes, and electric lights arise and recreate the day then too, the Parks are
beautiful.
On the 15th day of July, 1869, the committee submitted to the public ten
plans or suggestions for the locations of the Parks. These were exhibited for
ten days thereafter, and offers for the sale of lands and donations of the same
invited. The result was that no offers were received, whereupon the com-
mittee prepared three other plans or suggestions, which were, on the 5th day
of August, submitted to the public, and donations again solicited.
The result was that donation for a portion of the Boulevards were made,
and 14 acres promised conditionally, to be used in the purchase of the north-
ern Park. The committee having this matter in charge, made their report to
the board on the 19th day of August, setting forth the plans which had been
submitted to the public, and reporting the donations made or promised. Final
action was not taken on this report until the 4th day of November, 1869, when
the board definitely fixed and established the lines and boundaries of Parks
and Boulevards.
By the action of the board, a system of public Parks and pleasure ways
was secured, which combined all the advantages which the topographical
nature of the country afforded, having due regard to the means of access, and
proximity to the city. The boundaries of the Parks having been established,
the great work undertaken had just been entered upon; to secure the title to
these lands at prices which should be fair and equitable, as between the public
and the owner, gave rise to prolonged negotiations. The Park Commissioners
were in the market desiring to buy these lands, without money or means of
getting it until special assessments could be levied and collected. Prices of
lands in the vicinity of the Parks, under the excitement which existed during
the early part of 1869, had run up to a high figure, from which owners were
slow to recede, yet the board was so thoroughly convinced that the prices
asked were speculative and not the real value, that they refused to buy except
in cases where concessions of from 20 to 25 per-cent were made from these ex-
treme prices.
The Commissioners were willing to pay for the lands, taking the value as
it should be determined by the assessors appointed by the courts to condemn
64
the same. They were willing to ascertain this value without appealing to the
court, and much time and labor was expended in establishing or agreeing upon
the true rule to be followed in determining this question. That insisted upon
by the board, was to enquire what was the value of the lands taken for the
improvement contemplated at the time the same were selected, without regard
to any effect which the contemplated improvements might have upon other
lands in the vicinity.
Upon this basis, substantially, the purchases were conducted making the
purchase money payable in three installments, thus dividing the special assess-
ments into three annual assessments, instead of raising it by one assessment,
as would have been necessary if the land had been secured by condemnation.
The resources of the board from which to realize money to pay for lands
thus purchased, were. 1. The power to levy and collect special assessments
upon the real estate deemed benefited. 2. The right to issue bonds to pay
the amount found payable by the public; and 3. To issue bonds to pay any
deficiency which might exist after exhausting the other resources of the board.
The first assessment made by the assessors was for the sum of $231,835.73,
which was confirmed by the Circuit Court, and extended on the general Tax
Warrant^ for the year 1870. The amount collected under this warrant, less
commission for collecting, was $169,887.51, the balance, $55,810.91, was re-
ported to the County Court at the August term, 1871. as delinquent, and judg-
ment rendered against the property. Parties contesting this tax in the County
Court perfected appeals from this judgment to the Circuit Court about the J 5th
day of September following, and were pending in the Circuit Court at the
time of the destruction of the records of said Court by the great fire, October
9, 1871. Accordingly, measures were taken to restore the Kecord of Appeals
taken by delinquent owners; and the second assessment authorized by law,
amounting to $212,108.51, was made, and reported to the Circuit Court for
confirmation.
During the year 1871, four artesian wells were sunk, one in each of the
parks, and one in Humboldt Boulevard. The sinking of these wells was then
a matter of necessity, as at that time the municipal water mains did not extend
to those distant parts of the city. The well in Central Park is 1,220 feet deep,
the one in Douglas Park 1 ,165 and the well in Humboldt Park 1,155 feet deep.
The well in Humboldt Boulevard is located in Maplewood, at a point nearly
midway between the eastern terminus of the Boulevard and Logan Square.
In 1868, the year before the Park Act was passed, the land added by this
Act to the city, were assessed and paid taxes on a valuation of $429,660; in
1872, the same lands were assessed and paid taxes on a city assessment of
$9,506,230. This increase in the value of real estate was attained during a
period of the time most trying to the City of Chicago and its interests a fear-
ful conflagration in a few hours wiping out of existence a vast amount of its
wealth, utterly ruining many of its most active citizens, and followed in a few
months by a depression in business generally, reaching to every person in the
country, with a stringency in money centres which for a time threatened the
overthrow of all classes; yet through it all. these lands have steadily from
year to year advanced, and they have been an important element in securing
this result, without which other important interests would have been diverted
to more favorable localities; they have formed the nucleus around which all
other interests have centered.
Soon after the terrible conflagration of Oct. 8 and 9, 1871, it was suggested
by the city press that, with relics from the ruins, a monument ought to be
erected in Garfield Park, which should be unique in construction, and serve
to commemorate in some degree the fearful effect of the fiery elements which
had swept over the fairest portion of our city. Seizing upon the suggestion
thus made, the Board adopted a plan, affording opportunity to cut in lasting
marble the grateful acknowledgments of a suffering city. The ceremony of
laying the corner-stone came off on the 30th of October, 1872, when it was
laid with Masonic ceremonies, in the presence of a large number of citizens.
From the address of Hon. S. S. Hayes, who was one of the principal speakers
on that occasion, the following may'be quoted in reference to the great Chicago
fire:
Residence of Win. Schmidt, near Lincoln Park.
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"On the night of Oct. 8th, 1871, the Great Fire broke forth and raged
with resistless fury until the close of the next day, when by the blessing of
Divine Providence its ravages were stayed.
It was the greatest conflagration of which history gives an account, un-
less we except the burning of Moscow on the 15th and 16th of September,
18 1 2. The great fire in London in 1666 did not equal it in extent, or the
amount of loss. The London fire swept a space a mile long and half a mile
wide, and the value of buildings and goods consumed was estimated at from
fifty to sixty million dollars. In the burning of Moscow, the private loss by
the destruction of houses and their contents, exclusive of public buildings,
was calculated at one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. The Chicago tire
devastated a space nearly a mile in width and three miles and a half in length,
containing two thousand acres. Forty churches, fifty hotels, and nearly all
the public buildings, newspaper offices, banks, theatres and finest wholesale
and retail storehouses, besides thousands of dwellings, many of the most costly
character, were laid in ashes. The number of buildings destroyed was
17,450; of persons rendered homeless, 98,500. The losses on property of all
descriptions aside from depreciation of land, were estimated at two hundred
millions of dollars. No one who beheld those terrible scenes can ever forget
them. The earth and air for miles a pandemonium of flames, full of all hor-
rors, the roaring hurricane of fire sweeping down and devouring massive blocks
of brick, stone and iron as though they were wood, terror-stricken people half
clad crowding the streets and fleeing for their lives, some into the water of
Lake Michigan, others to the suburbs and adjacent country, over one hundred
thousand men, women and children without Shelter or food, the water supply
destroyed, the firemen and police worn out or saving their families, no hope
of preserving any part of the city except from the continuance of the south-
west wind such was the dreadful scene that neither tongue nor pen can des-
cribe. And through these trying scenes what self-sacrifice, what devotion,
what tenderness, what endurance, feeble women carrying from the flames the
aged and infirm, little children suppressing their terror to comfort their stricken
parents, and men became giants in energy, and everywhere risking their lives,
and spending their last strength to rescue the helpless, and save them from
impending death.
A few brave men were still fighting the fire, and mining the buildings
with gunpowder, on the South Side, others trying to rescue and succor the
helpless. A little band of heroes from Milwaukee were making the last stand
with their engines at Indiana street bridge. The last almost hopeless efforts
were blessed with success. The fire was arrested and driven slowly from its
prey. But the great and beautiful city was in ashes; its glory and its pride
were in the dust, a boundless expanse of blackened ruins. For miles there
was no sight or sound of life, only smoking heaps, solitary chimneys and
towers, broken portals and ragged and tottering walls, with here and there
the spectral outline of some great building empty and roofless and bare, a
mournful scene of lonely desolation. We all know that Chicago has risen
again in greater magnificence*than before. This was to be expected from the
speedy resurrection of Rome, of London and of Moscow. It was also to be
expected from the sagacity, the foresight, the patient industry, the indom-
itable courage and the high intelligence of our people. Individuals have lost
their all, but the city knows no loss; it stands with its resources undiminished,
its trade, its population, the value of its property largely increased. The
burnt district in the business quarter in a single year has been mostly rebuilt
in a style of greater solidity and of surpassing beauty. Two-thirds of the
dwellings have been restored. In another year scarcely a vestige of the Great
Fire will remain. This monument is being erected to keep that event in re-
membrance, to make known to future ages our sense of its magnitude, our
thankfulness to a merciful Providence for our rapid recovery, and our heart-
felt and endless gratitude to a sympathising world for their over-flowing kind-
ness, their unmeasured benefactions in the time of our suffering."
Central Park was opened to the public in August, 1874, and the throng of
people who visited the park on the occasion, and the concert days thereafter,
was a highly satisfactory demonstration of the interest taken in the parks.
68
From the origin of the West Park Board in 1869, until March 1st, 1877,
the important offices and practical control of the Board had been in the same
hands, until the retirement of E. F. Runyan, in the fall of 1876 and the appoint-
ment of Hon. J. F. A. Muus as his successor caused a change in the balance of
power, resulting in the election of Clark Lipe, President; Alden C. Millard, Sec-
retary, and B. Loewenthal, Esq., President of the International Bank, Treas-
urer; instead of Messrs. Stanford President, and Greenebaum Treasurer, who
had from the first occupied their respective positions.
The Governor, at this time, attempted to remove four of the members,
namely: Clark Lipe, President; A. C. Millard, Secretary; A. Muus and C. C.
P. Holden, from the office of Park Commissioners; and on October 8th, 1877,
each of the Commissioners named received a communication from the Gover-
nor, from which the following is an extract:
SIR: It has been evident for some time that the Board of West Chicago
Park Commissioners, as at present constituted, has lacked the harmony neces-
sary to enable it to do its duty in a manner which should be a credit to the
individual members, and command the respect and confidence of the citizens
of the town of West Chicago. The Board is divided into two parties, which
seem to be irreconcilable, each demanding the removal of the whole or part of
the opposing faction. I am fully convinced that in their capacity of Commis-
sioners, the present members of the Board of West Chicago Park Commission-
ers do not possess the kind of qualifications which are necessary to the dis-
charge of the duties of said office, and that the successful administration of
the Parks of West Chicago demands a change in said Board. I, therefore, by
virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution of the State of Illinois,
do hereby remove C. C. P. Holden, Alden C. Millard, Clark Lipe, and J. F.
Adolph Muus, West Chicago Park Commissioners, and declare their offices
vacant. S. M. CCLLOM,
Governor.
On October llth the Governor appointed the following named gentlemen
West Chicago Park Commissioners: Peter Schtittler to succeed C. C. P.
Holden, Emil Wilken to succeed Alden C. Millard, Sextus N. Wilcox to suc-
ceed Clark Lipe, and E. E. Wood to succeed J. F. Adolph Muus. Peter
Schuttler declined to accept the said appointment as to himself, and there-
upon the Governor appointed John Brenock in his place.
The Commissioners removed pronounced the Governor's action illegal and
unconstitutional and appealed to the courts for protection. Long and weary
litigation followed, and by a decision of the Supreme Court the Governor was
sustained in his removals; the assumption of a life interest in the office of
Commissioner was limited to a term of seven years.
The new administration, although organized on the 15th of March, 1878,
did not gain possession of the office, books and documents until the 5th day of
July following, when the financial affairs of the Board were found to be in an
unsatisfactory condition; sometime was required" to ascertain the amount of the
immediate liabilities of the Board for men's wages, bills for supplies for the
Parks and amount of overdue interest, and thai available resources to meet
such claims.
The new Board of Commissioners was composed of the following gentle-
men. Willard Woodard, President; Samuel H. McCrea, Sextus N. Wilcox.
John Brenock, Auditor; Emil Wilken, E. Erwin Wood, George Rahlfs. Ber-
thold Loewenthal was Treasurer and R. McChesney Secretary. The follow-
ing year Mr. John Buehler was appointed Treasurer and E. E. Wood
Secretary.
Many of the primary plans for developing the grounds and obtaining the
best results from the unpromising blank on which first to operate a flat,
naked, cold and undrained prairie of clay, destitute of any natural beauty, in
landscape or otherwise were of necessity experimental, and in some instances
required the handling and re-handling of earth two or three times to obtain
satisfactory results. Earth suited to the requirements of tree, shrub and lawn
nature had not supplied, and without a soil loamy and rich, no shady grove
or velvety lawn was possible. To supply this necessity, therefore, it became
necessary to make up artificially large quantities of compost, involving much
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labor and expense in collection and subsequent treatment of its ingredients.
Garfield (then Central) Park was the first battle ground. The experimental
park, though only partially developed, was thrown open to public use fully
four years before either of the others, and during these four years the Park
management were gaining in experience and wisdom, which accrued to the
benefit of the other parks when active work was commenced therein. This
work was continued in Douglas and Humboldt Parks under more favorable
conditions. Labor and material were cheaper, and with the experience ob-
tained a given sum of money obtained a greater and more perceptible amount
of improvement than a like sum would or could have done during the earlier
labors of the Board. And, fortunately for the taxpayers, arrangements were
concluded by the Board by which two of the largest railway companies enter-
ing Chicago disposed of the earth and ordure from their stock cars so that it
was conveniently situated and readily available for use in any of the parks.
The debit value of Garfield Park was increased by an abortive attempt to
commemorate the great fire of 1871 by the afore mentioned monument, which
entailed a cost of nearly $14,000, and which has long become a part of the earth
surrounding it.
Up to 1882 the citizens could not expect rapid development, much less
great perfection of Park and Boulevards, while the Board had but the limited
revenue of $100,000 from which all expense, both of new work and maintain-
ing the old was taken. Thereafter a petition was presented and a bill intro-
duced to the Legislature, providing for an additional tax of two and one-half
mills, which added nearly $90,000.00 to the income.
A movement sprung up in 1880 among certain property owners on the
line of Humboldt Boulevard, with the intention to secure the building of a
driveway similar to that connecting Garfield and Humboldt Parks, to extend
north and east, and eventually connect with some similar driveway extending
west from Lincoln Park. The Board then owned in the town of Jefferson the
right of way for Boulevard purposes, extending north and east from Hum-
boldt Park to Western Avenue, a distance of about 13.000 feet. That
town at that time contributed in part the expense of grading and of planting
trees.
As a whole, there was probably never on this continent, nor in the old
world, such a grand and complete conception of pleasure grounds and drives
as was here presented. A great commercial mart of then over half a million
souls, with rapidly increasing wealth and population, with untiring energy,
and every condition that was necessary to insure its future position as the
great metropolis of this continent, encircled on every side by park and drive-
way, so developed, improved and perfected as shall render it a garden indeed;
a restful spot, a breathing space of pure air, and free as the drawn breath to
the thousands who may seek its quiet and repose; open to the son of toil and
capitalist alike, and of such ample space as will meet the demands of a city of
millions; surely the apprehension of this great idea was worthy of the far-
sighted appreciation of the intelligent citizens of Chicago, and of the coming
wants of this great city when its ample wealth shall insist upon the develop-
ment of the esthetic as well as the material growth of its inhabitants.
With such encouragement and material aid as was afforded by the intelli-
gence and wealth which made up the city's greatness, one could with reason
expect that the present generation would be able to enjoy the pleasure of
twenty-five miles of continuous driving, commencing at Lincoln Park on the
north (a wonder in itself) then west, south and east through woodland and
grove, by gravel road and rustic viaduct, by lake and stream and bubbling
fountain, by greensward and velvety lawn, the air redolent with the perfume
of a thousand flowers, and song of bird as clear and free as in virgin forest;
till South Park, with all its grand appointments, is reached on the south.
* In 1881 the Board of West Chicago Park Commissioners consisted of the
following , gentlemen: Harvey L. Thompson, Consider B. Carter, George
Rahlfs, Samuel H. McCrea, John Brenock, Willard Woodard, Sextus N.
Wilcox, and J. Frank Lawrence. S. H. McCrea was President; John Buehler.
Treasurer; Willard Woodard, Auditor; Thomas J. Suddard, Secretary, and
O. F. Dubuis, Engineer. Mr. Wilcox was drowned in Lake Superior in June,
72
1881, and Mr. J. Frank Lawrence appointed to succeed him. John Brenock,
who was elected President of the Board in 1882, resigned that office in March
of that year, and Patrick J. McGrath succeeded him.
In connection with Mr. Wilcox, it may be mentioned, that early in the
spring of 1878, he attempted to remove the treasurer of the board, Mr. Berth-
old Lowenthal, from office and for no other perceptible reason than that Mr.
Lowenthal refused to make loans out of the funds of his bank to the board,
who at that time had to battle with might and main against financial difficul-
ties. The demand for his resignation was sent to him in writing, but the
sender had chosen a very inappropriate time for the delivery of the message,
for on that very day Mr. Lowenthal was carrying to the grave two of his be-
loved children, who had suddenly been torn from him by relentless death. As
no charges could be brought against Mr. Lowenthal, he of course paid no heed
to the ill timed peremptory demand, and remained in office to the end of his
term.
In accordance with an act of the State Legislature, and a petition signed
by the owners of a majority of the frontage of the abutting property, the City
Council, on September 29, 1879, conveyed by ordinance to the Board of Com-
missioners the control of Washington Street, from Halsted Street to Garfield
Park. On October 17, 1879, the Board, by formal action, secured control, and
in 1881 the work was put under contract from Halsted Street to Rockwell
Street.
The Board of West Chicago Park Commissioners, in the years 1883-4, was
constituted as follows: Henry S. Burkhardt, Patrick McGrath, Harvey L.
Thompson, Christian C. Kohlsaat, George Rahlfs, David W. Clark and John
Brenock, and in 1885-6 the members of the Board were the following: Chris-
toph Tegtmeyer, Henry S. Burkhardt. Patrick McGrath, Harvey L. Thomp-
son, Christian C. Kohlsaat, George Rahlfs, David W. Clark, with George
Rahlfs as President.
In the year 1885 contracts were let for the new greenhouse in Garfield
Park and for the new conservatory in Humboldt Park. The green-houses are
composed of stone foundations, brick substructures and wood, and consist of
exotic houses, hot, cold and propagating houses, boiler, fuel, potting and store
rooms, offices, passages and entrance porches. The Humboldt Park houses
were built with glass superstructures, and cover an area of about 15, 000 square
feet, divided as follows: Exotic house, 48x64 feet and 62 feet high; hot and
cold houses 25x60 feet each, and four propagating houses, each 12x100 feet,
and the remainder of the buildings for working rooms and passages. This
plant is so arranged that the large and lofty exotic house is in the centre, sur-
mounted by two cupolas, with hot and cold houses as wings at the sides,
entrance porches and offices in front, and working rooms in the rear, the pro-
pagating houses radiating from the same. The Garfield Park plant covers an area
about as great as that at Humboldt, divided as follows: An exotic house 48x48
feet, and 65 feet high, hot and cold houses 26x55 feet each, and four propa-
gating houses 12x100 feet each, and the remainder for working rooms and
passages. The Garfield plant is so arranged that the exotic house, octagonal
in shape and surmounted by a dome and cupola, occupies the center, with hot
and cold houses as wings on either side, entrance porches and offices in front
and working rooms in the rear, the propagating houses radiating from the
same. Each plant is heated by a hot water system skilfully constructed, and
so arranged that each house is independent of the other, and the water, after
passing through about 7,000 feet of pipe, returns to the two large boilers to
be re-heated. The main houses are covered with ribbed glass, decorated with
stained glass, and have cement walks. The Humboldt Park conservatory was
built at a cost of $22,594.08, and that in Garfield Park at about the same
amount.
Union Park, located j ust east of Ashland Avenue, on the line of Wash-
ington Boulevard, was, by ordinance of the City Council passed October 9,
1885, turned over to the Board of West Chicago Park Commissioners, and the
Board accepted the control of same by ordinance passed October 12, 1885.
This Park, with Washington Boulevard extended through it, provided quite
an acquisition to the Park system. It was acquired by the city by pur-
73
chase from S. S. Hayes, W. 8. Johnston, Samuel L. Baker and others, in
December, 1833, and February, 1854. It contains 14 4-5 acres and is bounded
by West Lake (Street, Bryan Place, Ogden, Warren and Ashland Avenues.
Union I'ark was improved a few years ago as follows: The lake is
divided into three parts: First, one basin 300x200 feet, of an oval form;
the contours are regular and defined by a moulded stone coping laid on stone
foundations. Opposite Park Avenue is a lake landing 66 feet long and 35 feet
wide, divided in its center by broad stone steps, and ornamented with stone
pedestals for vases and flagstaff. The central feature is a canal 30 feet wide
and 75 feet long, spanned by a stone bridge. The third feature is a basin 100
feet in diameter, with stone railing and central decorative fountain. These
basins are of Portland cement concrete, and the water in each is six inches on
the edges, gradually deepening to three feet in the center. The walks are
well shaded, furnished with seats, and are much easier of ingress and egress
.than formerly.
The olhce building erected in Union Park during 1888 at a cost of
$15,864.60 is a picturesque structure, set back from frequented paths, as befits
its purely business and private character, and forms an agreeable feature of
the park landscape. It has a stone basement, with a brick and frame super-
structure and a one-story roof of the English cottage style, the gables being
built with exterior timber and sluice panels. The entrance is through a
veranda under the roof to the main business office, handsomely partitioned off ,
with a meeting room for the Board and offices for the President, Secretary
and General Superintendent. In the basement are toilet rooms for ladies and
gentlemen and a storage room for tools and implements. The interior finish
of the building is of red oak, and the walls are sand finished and painted a
neutral green. Three large vaults have been built to accommodate the large
mass of books and papers which have accumulated. The conservatory is
limited in extent, its contents consisting principally of palms and ferns, but
nevertheless a very pretty view as seen from the Board room windows. A
graceful winding staircase leads up the interior of the tower, and to the
rooms for the janitor and gardener. The material excavated from the
basement has been utilized in filling the surroundings of the building and
forming new lawns and terraces. A new driveway with an entrance from
Bryan Place has also been constructed. The total cost of the improvements
has been $19,135.09.
Vernon Park, located on the line of Polk Street, between Center Avenue
and Loomis Street, was on October 12, 1885, turned over to the Board of West
Chicago Park Commissioners, who accepted control of same by ordinance
passed November 9, 1885. This park, covering an area of four acres, laid
about four feet below the level or grade of the surrounding property. Thir-
teen thousand four hundred and sixty-three dollars and sixty-five cents were
expended in re-constructing this park. The total park area has been raised
above the street grade, over 25,000 cubic yards of clay, sand and black soil
have been used in the filling, 382 trees have been planted and 603 feet of stone
curbing set. The park now is one of the most beautiful of the small parks in
the city. It is in the center of a large and rapidly improving district, and will
perhaps confer as much real benefit and pleasure tothe public as any improve-
ment heretofore made in our parks. It was donated to the city by Henry D.
Gilpin, October 17, 1859, and is bounded by Macalister and Gilpin Places,
Loomis, Sibley and Lytle Streets and Centre Avenue.
Jefferson Park, located between Monroe and Adams Streets on the north
and south and Throop and Loomis on the east and west, is a pretty little park
of about five and one-half acres. It is in the form of a square, and is sur-
rounded on all sides by fine residences. This park was, by ordinance of the
City Council passed October 9, 1885, turned over to the Board of West Chicago
Park Commissioners.
Wicker Park, triangular in shape, located between Robey, Park and Fow-
ler streets, in the northwest portion of the city, was turned over to the West
Chicago Park Commissioners October 26, 1885. This park is inclosed on all
sides by handsome residences, mostly owned by well-known and well-to-do
Germans and -Scandinavians.
74 - -
The public spirit of the people of West Chicago took form during the
early winter of 1891 and resulted in the passage by the General Assembly of
this State of an Act, approved by Governor Joseph W. Fifer on the 12th day
of June, 1891, authorizing the corporate authorities of the town of West Chi-
cago to issue bonds for the purpose of improving and completing the parks
and boulevards held, controlled and maintained by the Board of West Chicago
Park Commissioners, excepting therefrom, however, all boulevards acquired
from pre-existing streets. In compliance with the provisions of this Act, such
proper action was taken on June 30, 1891, by the corporate authorities of the
town of West Chicago, as was necessary to place in the hands of the Park
Board bonds of the town of West Chicago aggregating the total sum of one
million dollars, to be applied in improvements of the original Park and Boule-
vard system as specified in such Act of the General Assembly. These bonds
are payable within a period of twenty years from the first day of July, 1891,
with semi-annual interest thereon at the rate of five per cent, per annum. In
order to secure the payment of the interest on those bonds as it becomes due
from time to time, and also to pay and discharge the principal thereof, accord-
ing to the provisions of said Act, as the same shall mature, the corporate
authorities of the town of West Chicago, in strict compliance with their legal
duties under the constitution and laws of the State of Illinois, have provided
for the levy and collection of an annual tax of one and one-half mills of
the dollar on all of the taxable property of the town of West Chicago.
The bonds so issued and delivered by the town authorities of the town of
West Chicago to the West Chicago Park Commissioners are of the denomi-
nation of one thousand dollars each. The amount received by the Park Board
applicable to general park purposes during the year 1891 was but one hundred
and ninety-four thousand six hundred and twenty-six dollars and eighty-three
cents. Of this amount one hundred and fifty-seven thousand eight hundred
and thirty-four dollars and fifty-one cents were expended in the maintenance
of the park system as it was then, leaving the sum of thirty-six thousand
seven hundred and ninety-two dollars, thirty-two cents for expenditure upon
new improvements. The extension of improvements upon the park system
necessarily increased the amount necessary for the purpose of maintenance,
and without the timely provision of the one million dollars obtained through
the legislation above referred to, it would have been many years before the
system of parks could have been completed. The burden to the tax-payer
occasioned by the issue of the one million dollar bonds is imperceptible when
the beneficent results of a complete park system are considered and appreci-
ated. These bonds came to the aid of the West Chicago Park Commissioners
in a most opportune time, and enabled the Board to place its parks and
pleasure-ways in a most attractive condition at all times, and especially for the
delight and enjoyment of the millions who are our guests during the World's
Columbian Exposition. Contracts were at once awarded for all the material
necessary in the construction of the boulevards and for the completion of the
unimproved portions of Douglas, Garfield and Humboldt Parks, and for such
additional buildings as have been deemed necessary.
Contracts were also let for the construction of a bridge across the west
branch of the south branch of the Chicago river and the building of a bridge
in conjunction with the South Park Commissioners across the Illinois and
Michigan Canal; both bridges were built within the South- West Boulevard.
The construction of these two bridges effectually unites the South Park and
the West Park systems, and gives to the world a public pleasure-way unsur-
passed anywhere in length, width and attractiveness for pleasure seekers.
On March 14th, of this year, Governor Altgeld appointed the following
as members of the West Chicago Park Board :
John W. Garvey to suceed George Mason, E Imund Z. Bnidowski to suc-
ceed John Kralovec, resigned; Andrew J. Graham to succeed Hermann
Weinhardt, resigned; Carl Moll to succeed Harvey L. Thompson resigned;
and James J. Townsend to succeed Jefferson L. Fulton, resigned.
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HUMBOLDT PARK.
This popular pleasure garden is situated in the northwestern part of the
city, the two main entrances being on California Avenue at the intersection
of this street with Division Street and North Avenue. It offers to friends of
nature a greater wealth of picturesque views and sylvan retreats, than any
other of our artificial forests and is especially fortunate in having been laid
out and fostered by enlightened taste and skill, displayed in a high degree by
Mr. Frederick Karnatz, the veteran landscape gardener and superintendent
of this charming park. Here as in all of our other large public parks much
money was spent in ornamental and landscape gardening, the fruits of which,,
the large number of noble trees, judiciously and picturesquely planted, add
the greatest value to these grounds. Of course here too all the landscape, so-
to speak, had to be manufactured, but the grounds being naturally some-
what higher than those at Garfleld and Douglas Parks, less difficulty was en-
countered in preparing the waste lands for their blessed purpose. The main
feature of Humboldt Park is to be found in the magnificence and healthy ap-
pearance of the great number and large variety of shade trees. The well
kept driveways and footpaths leading through the length and width of the
park present a series of natural vistas of land and lake scenery, which break
like sudden glimpses of fairy-land upon the gaze of the delighted pilgrim
from the hot and dusty city. A net-work of such drives and walks leads
deftly over hilly formations, through forest-like groves, through glade and
glen; they take us from changing sunshine to shadow, from the margin of
the glittering lake to beds of fragrant flowers, to ever recurring vistas of rare
beauty and variety these, and the skilful arrangement of the flower garden
in front of the palm house, the judicious grouping of blooming shrubberies
here and there and many other beautiful things besides have transformed
this spot into one of the loveliest and most delightful suburban parks in this
country.
It'was opened to the public in July 1877, but was at that time only par-
tially completed. The Germans of Chicago, of whom a large number reside
in the northwestern part of the city and the vicinity of the park, were greatly
pleased when this park was named after the great naturalist and master in
science, Alexander von Humboldt, their illustrious countryman, and they
celebrated the day of the opening, it being a Sunday, in regular German
fashion. They had a large and imposing street-procession, which was fol-
lowed at the park by music, song and speeches, the whole taking the shape
of a highly enjoyable "Volksfest."
The promise given by Humboldt Park at that early day, when it yet was
in its infancy, has been faithfully kept, thanks to the skilful hand of the
aforementioned landscape gardener. In no other of our parks is the separa-
tion of the system of park-landscapes from that of garden-landscapes so
plainly visible and so ably carried through as in this model-park. Humboldt
Park has an area of 200 acres, of which in 1891 only half were under cultiva-
tion. Since then however the entire northwestern part which until then had
been a barren waste, has been taken in hand by a host of workmen, who are
transforming all that territory into beautiful groves, lawns, drives and lakes.
For these extensive improvements the board of commissioners appropriated
no less than $220,000, this sum being a part of the $1,000,000 derived from the
sale, of bonds authorized by the state legislature. The new work comprises
the excavations for a new lake, which will have an average width of 400 feet
and will cover an area of about 31 acres. On its northern shore a handsome
Casino, to cost $60,000, is now in the course of construction; it will be three
stories high, and beneath it on the lakeshore will be the boat landing-piace.
This part of the park was also chosen for the erection of a handsome music-
pavilion and promises as a whole to add quite an attractive feature to lovely
78
Humboldt Park. All these improvements were greatly hindered in their
progress by the long weeks of rainy weather in the spring of 1892, to which
is owing the fact, that instead of bringing this new section to completion at
the end of last year, it will not be ready for public use before next fall.
On the 16th day of October last (1892) there was unveiled in this park a
very handsome bronze statue of Alexander von Humboldt, after whom the
park was named. Fully 20,000 persons some ^enthusiasts go so far as to
claim double that number witnessed the dedication. Even the lesser number
was a tremendous outpouring considering the limited means of transportation
to the beautiful park. The occasion was one long to be remembered, not
only by the thousands of Germans who participated, but by the countless
numbers of other nationalities present. Vast as was the crowd, it testified in
mute though powerful manner to the truism that a truly great man belongs
to no one nation. It seemed as if by silent agreement all the speakers on
this occasion had taken this truism as their leading thought, for all dwelt up-
on the fact that, abstruse as scientific research of necessity is, Humboldt had
in a rare degree the faculty of teaching all people of whatever nation and
whatever walk in life. It was a glorious and impressive tribute to the great
man's "Kosmos." There was, of course, a grand parade of civic societies;
there was ''music by the band" as well as by vocal societies, and there was an
elaborate oratorical programme separately and together effective, but far
more impressive than it all was the great throng of people that was massed
around the central space in front of the old pavilion, where the bronze figure
of Humboldt stands, the earnest face whith its massive brow and the sharply
accentuated features turned toward the rising sun. The Humboldt statue,
the generous gift of Mr. F. J. Dewes, a prominent and highly respected Ger-
man citizen of Chicago, is pronounced by connoisseurs a masterpiece of the
sculptor's art. It was cast in the famous foundry of Gladenbeck & Son, in the
German capital. Its height is ten feet and it shows the great savant in the
position of a lecturer. In the half raised right hand, which rests against the
body, he holds a flower, while the left, in which is clasped a book, rests easily
upon the limb of the tree trunk by his side. Partly visible is a globe at his
feet, alongside of which the head of an animal and other symbolic figures are
seen, indicating the various sciences in which the great naturalist excelled.
The whole breathes truth and warmth, pulsating life; the figure shows noble
dignity, and the artist has admirably succeeded in portraying Humboldt's
nobility of soul, genius and self-reliance. The observer is deeply impressed
with the repose and equipoise so dominant in this work of art, and by all real
artists considered the first law of sculpture. The monument is an original
work of Felix Goerling, a young German artist of rare talents. The granite
pedestal was designed and executed by H. C. Hoffman & Co., of this city. It
is made from the celebrated Freeport, Me., granite. The ceremony of un-
veiling the statue was conducted under the auspices of the German Press
club. The first step in the direction of making arrangements worthy of the
occasion was taken by several friends of F. J. Dewes, the donor of the statue,
during his absence in Europe last summer. A committee of thirteen was
chosen, and as a large majority of these were also associate members of the
German Press club, the desire was expressed that this organization should
take full charge of the preparations. The entire committee, to which two mem-
bers of the Humboldt Celebration club an organization formed for the sole
purpose of arranging the parade of societies who participated in the ceremon-
ies were added, was as follows:
A. C. Hesing, Ed. Uihlein, John Buehler,
C. H. Plautz, Louis Wolff. J. Rosenthal,
Harry Rubens, Edward Rose, H. Greenebaum,
J. Goldzier, A. St. George, Dr. H. Harms,
H. Weinhardt, F. Amberg, Edward Koch,
Andreas Simon, Theo. Janssen, Dr. M. Henius,
Paul Haedicke, F. Glogauer, J. P. Arnold,
Dr. F. H. Bernard, E. F. L." Gauss, Felix L. Senff.
Carl Haerting,
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Henry Greenebaum was selected as chief marshal and Jacob Gross,
George Heinzmann and Franz Amberg were his aids. The arrangements in
the park, for seating the distinguished guests, several hundred singers, and
particularly for handling the vast crowds were in charge of Park Commis-
sioner Weinhardt, and it is but just to state that not a single hitch occurred to
mar the impressiveness of the scene. The formal programme opened with the
arrival of the parading societies, twenty in number and several thousand
strong, held well in line by Major Heinzmann, the chief of staff. The Hum-
boldt Select Knights of America, in very handsome regalia, formed a circle
around the veiled statue and Professor Hand's orchestra intoned a hymnus,
which was followed by Mohr's Cantata. "At the Altar of Truth," executed by
the following singing societies, under direction of Gustav Ehrhorn : Teutonia
Maennerchor, Schiller Liedertafel, Liedertafel Vorwaerts, Freie Saenger-
bund, Humboldt Saengerclub, Almira Saengerclub. Then Mr. A. C. Hesiug,
president of the monument committee, formally presented the statue to the west
park board in a German speech full of his characteristic vigor and earnest-
ness. Formal though the remarks of necessity were, Mr. Hesing was again
and again interrupted by applause, especially when in conclusion he said:
"This monument will not only be an ornament to the city, but it will prove a
mighty incentive to deep thought and intellectual activity to every beholder.
Douglas, Drexel, Martin Ryerson's Indian group, Schiller, Lincoln, LaSalle,
Linnaeus and Grant ornament our parks and give silent but effective proof of
the drift of our people. For Alexander von Humboldt no better place could
have been chosen than this beautiful park that bears his name."
Then, amid the vociferous cheers of the thousands, little Martha Wein-
hardt, daughter of the park commissioner, unveiled the statue, and when-
Chief Marshal Greenebaum deposited two beautiful floral tributes from the
Schlaraffia and from the Citizens' club of Avondale upon the pedestal, cheers
upon cheers were given by the multitude.
Harvey L. Thompson, president of the West park board, accepted the
magnificent gift in a speech full of enthusiasm, in which he said: To the
people of Chicago the present occasion is one for sincere congratulation. The
thoughtful and generous gift of Mr. Dewes to the people of this city is an-
other evidence of that large hearted interest manifested by so many public
spirited gentlemen by contributing in a public way something to the adorn-
ment of our public places and pleasure grounds. Chicago is without a rival
in the extent and magnificence of her pleasure domains and the splendid
work of art presented to us to-day by one of our citizens and neighbors is an
assured promise that the high born spirit of her people, destined to make
Chicago peerless among the cities, will also secure to her public places those
works of art those fascinating expressions of the human affections, which so
aptly illustrate the progress of an intrepid and exalted civilization.
Mayor Washburne made a happy speech on behalf of the city and Dr.
Max Henius, president of the German Press club, paid a masterly tribute to
Humboldt in a speech in the German language. The English oration of the
occasion was by Professor Albion W. Small, of the University of Chicago. He
expressed his sincere regret that Professor von Hoist, who at first had been
invited, had not yet sufficiently recovered his strength to be present. How-
ever, the desire to offer a courtesy to the University of Chicago by giving: a
part in the celebration to some one of its members, was a mark of distinction
which it was an honor to acknowledge.
Another monument will soon adorn this park. It will be a statue of Fritz
Reuter, the Charles Dickens of the "Plattdeutsche" people. The money has
all been subscribed and the statue is to be cast in one of the celebrated found-
ries of Germany.
82
GARFIELD PARK.
Not until after the death of President Garfield, was the name of Central
Park changed to Garfield Park and then the change was made as a tribute to
the memory of the illustrious dead.
This Park is situated about midway between Humboldt and Douglas
Parks, about four to five miles from the Court House. It is reached by the
Madison Street, Lake Street and Randolph Street car lines and by Washington
Boulevard. The Central Boulevard from Humboldt to Garneld Park has been
handsomely improved during the last season and now furnishes to owners of
private vehicles an elegant roadway for a pleasure drive. A very important
improvement on the line of this boulevard is the viaduct over the Chicago,
Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway tracks, the roadway of which has been paved
by the Railroad Company, who also erected a substantial railing on each side
of it. This viaduct was thrown open for public travel May 15, 1886. Con-
siderable planting was done on the approaches leading to this structure and
nearly all the ornamentation with shrubs and trees was executed under the
personal supervision of Mr. George Rah If s, then commissioner and president
of the Park Board, and it stands as a monument to his good judgment and
taste.
The many hundreds of handsome shade-trees and shrubs scattered over
the 185 acres of Garrield Park show signs of a healthy growth and form pretty
little groves and picturesque groups. The art of the gardener during the sum-
mer months transforms a considerable part of the velvety lawns into gorgeous
and odorous flower-parterres of various shapes and designs, but the interior of
the elegant greenhouse standing in the extreme southwestern corner of the
park, is a beauty all the year around. Here Mr. Sell, the head gardener,
propagates and cultivates not only the many varieties of bedding plants for
outdoor ornamentation, but also some of the choicest species of tropical and
exotic plants; especially rich is the collection of orchids, which is quite large
and contains some very interesting species of this genus of plants. The park-
lake, which covers an area of seventeen acres, and contains two pretty islands,
proves one of the main attractions this park possesses. The piazzas of the re-
fectory or refreshment pavilion afford very fine views over lake and parklands
and the boat landing directly below with its merry people either embarking
for a ride on the smooth water or returning from a trip full of joy and glee.
In 1879 the Illinois Humane Society donated to this park a substantial
and beautiful drinking fountain for man and beast. The money for this de-
sirable improvement was contributed by Mrs. Mancftl Talcott and the donation
was in harmony with the liberal spirit of her late husband, and only one of the
charitable acts of the donor.
In May, 1875, permission was given to a number of gentlemen to use the
unimproved part of Garfield Park lying south of Madison Street and extend-
ing from there as far south as Colorado Avenue as a driving park, but it served
this purpose only for a brief period and is now being changed into extensive
lawns for base ball, cricket and other outdoor sports, where people, who fre-
quent the park in pursuit of pleasure and recreation, will find increased fac-
ilities for satisfying their desires. The present Park Board has in contem-
plation the erection of a Museum of Natural History in this portion of the park-
territory and if this plan should be carried out, Garfield Park would certainly
then become the mecca of a vastly larger number of people, than have hereto-
fore visited this lovely spot. There is also under consideration the erection of
a suitable monument to the memory of our martyr President James A. Gar-
field, at the Washington Boulevard entrance to the park, and a committee has
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been appointed to co-operate with the citizens of the West Division, to secure
such a monument, as would be an ornament to the park, and keep alive in the
memory of our people the noble traits and character of this distinguished cit-
izen.
Garfield Park is bounded on the North by Kinzie Street, on the East by
Central Park Avenue, on the South by Colorado Avenue and on the West by
Hamlin Avenue. The artesian well, the water of which contains medicinal
properties for stomach and kidney diseases, has a flow of about 150 gallons a
minute. The result of an analysis of this water is given on another page of
this book
Garfield Park, like all the rest of the parks, will become more and more
attractive year by year and the purely artificial will gradually assume its ap-
propriate place in the natural. The location of the parks out on the prairie-
land of the West Side has been of inestimable value not only to the City of
Chicago as a corporate body, but also to individual citizens, who have profited
by large increases of real estate values throughout the surrounding districts;
but this has been especially the case in the vicinity of Garfield Park and the
avenues leading to it from the city. The actual worth of a plat of land or a
building has as truly been increased by the parks being brought to it, as the
actual worth of a bushel of corn is increased by its being brought from the
prairies of our State to a storehouse in New York. And then look at the bus-
iness that has been created by the establishment of parks-! It has spread so
widely in every direction as to be beyond calculation. It may be assumed, for
instance, that of the large number of vehicles which enter our parks, nearly
one half if not more are hired. The profits of the livery business arising from
the use of vehicles for drives to the parks and over our boulevards are shared
in small portions by many hundreds or thousands of men, by the owners of the
vehicles, the drivers, the stable men, the mechanics who build the carriages
and manufacture the harnesses, the breeders who raise the horses and the
farmers who produce the hay and grain upon which they are fed. Again the
street car companies and even the steam railroads which approach the parks
convey each year millions of passengers each way and of the fares they receive
about two-thirds must be considered as net profit, for it happens that the tide
of travel to and from the parks sets in just at the hours, when there is a lull
in the ordinary business transit.
But great as is this pecuniary advantage to the city and to individuals, it
is the least of the benefits arising from the parks. Every thing is useful just
in proportion as it in some way adds to human enjoyment. A good dinner,
a convenient house, elegant furniture, fine clothing, ornaments, a swift horse,
or a fast yacht, are useful in this respect and no other. So pictures, statuary
and music are useful. In fact, the common distinction between the useful
and the ornamental is really baseless. The parks are useful, because they add
to human enjoyment. But the amount of enjoyment derived from anything
is not unfrequently wholly incapable of being expressed in dollars and cents.
If we could find out just how much each of the millions of visitors to our
parks would give rather than not have the parks open to them, we could ap-
proximate a little toward their value. Even this would be only an approxima-
tion, for not unfrequently people derive more benefit than they dream of from
enjoyments for which there is no monetary measure. No man can say, for
example, how much the health of our city is owing to the parks.
DOUGLAS PARK.
The main drive from the Humane Fountain in Garfield Park to the main
drive in Douglas Park is called Douglas Boulevard, which forms an important
link in the chain of drives, connecting the three great parks of the West Side
Douglas Park, four miles southwest of the Court House, contains 179 acres.
The chief beauties of this park are found in its magnificent lake, its beautiful
foliage trees, lovely floral decorations and the newly improved section lying
south of Ogden Avenue, where, in 1890, a large Palm house, called the Winter-
garden, was constructed. This building and its surroundings, although simple
in detail, combine to produce an elegant effect and are unique in the park
system of Chicago. The Wintergarden is built on an elevation fronting
towards Ogden Avenue, about midway between the east and west lines of the
park. In this new improvement a large lawn at the southwest end, of suffic-
ient size for amateur ball games, tennis courts and for militia drills, has been
laid out. This was thought especially desirable, as heretofore there was no such
large lawn in any of the west side parks. South of this lawn is a lake, the excava-
tions from which were used for the necessary filling, as the ground of that
portion of Douglas Park was below the grade of the adjacent streets. The
lake connects under Ogden Avenue with the older lake to the north of the
avenue, and the Wintergarden stands in the midst of terraces, which continue
down to the lake to a boat landing at the south. These terraces accommodate
quite a large concourse of people, and there is a band stand so placed as to ad-
mit a large audience within easy hearing distance. The Wintergarden build-
ing is 178 feet long by 62 feet wide at the widest part. It has a center pa-
vilion forty feet square, with wings on the east and west, each wing terminat-
ing in an aquilateral cross, the arms being sixty-two feet by thirty feet. The
center pavilion is approached from the north and south through wide ves-
tibules, the approach on the Ogden Avenue side containing also the offices of
the head gardener, ladies' toilet, the stairs to the basement and to the gallery
over the vestibule.
In the center pavilion and in the east wing the plants are mostly set di-
rectly into the ground. Here are cultivated the largest tropical plants, such
as palms, ferns, banana-trees, etc. The entire improvement, which also em-
braces a large lily-pond west of the Wintergarden building, was made at an
expense of about $60,000.
But the park has many other attractive features. The artesian well in an
embowered grotto feeds the lake and is visited by many on account of the
medicinal properties of its water, which however is not considered as valuable
in that respect as the water from the well in Garfield Park, from where hun-
dreds and thousands of gallons are annually carried away in jugs to private
residences throughout the surrounding districts.
From the balconies of the spacious and well equipped refectory is had a
fine view of the lake and the most striking vistas of the grounds. Numerous
costly improvements have been completed here during the last few seasons among
which the new greenhouses erected on California Avenue near Nineteenth
Street take a high rank; then the park has been provided with one ladies' and
one gentlemen's cottage building and with a band pavilion. The old prop-
agating houses formerly situated near California and Ogden Avenues have
been entirely removed and the place laid bare thereby has been transformed
into a lawn to be used for floral decorations.
Douglas Park, which was named after the renowned statesman from Illi-
nois, Stephen A. Douglas, is reached by the Ogden Avenue and West Twelfth
Street car lines, the distance being about four miles from the Court House.
Residence of Andrew Leiclit, near Lincoln Park.
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A monument to the memory of Stephen A. Douglas will undoubtedly
before long become an important link in the chain of attractive features
this lovely park possesses.
To the popular superintendent, Mr. Nelson Johnson, and the gardener in
chief, Mr. Zapel, is due in a great measure the credit of keeping steadily in
view the one object of making the park a pleasure ground, admitting nothing
which would interfere with this, prohibiting nothing which would conduce to it,
and as mentioned before, the Commissioners have wisely set apart a portion of the
newly improved section south of Ogden Avenue for a parade ground, cricket,
the "national game" base ball, etc. The certainty, that upon any day there
is access to the green-sward, forms one of the greatest attractions of the park,
especially for those, to whom of all others it is for the well-being of the com-
munity that the place should be rendered attractive. The toil-worn artisan,
his weary wife and pining children are assured, that on any bright summer or
autumn day they will find sward and shade open to them, and their welcome
face therefore becomes more and more frequent in the park. .
And now in this connection let us measure out full praise to the men, who,
from the year 1869 to the present day, have given their time and personal ef-
forts to the grand work of creating and maintaining the great Park-System of
the West Side. From first to last the administration of the West Park Com-
missioners has been not only pure, but unsuspected, and few residents of our
City need be told how much private worth and public spirit is embodied in
the men who have faithfully and without pecuniary reward served the people
in the capacity of West Park Commissioners. The honest and capable admin-
istration of all of our parks stands in pleasing contrast to many other depart-
ments of our public service.
90
WEST SIDE BOULEVARDS.
At Halsted Street it is where the grand boulevard system of the West
Side begins. Pick your way among the shuttling street cars, avoiding the
population, which is heavy in that section, until you reach Jackson Street, or
rather Boulevard, for a boulevard it became in name something over two
years ago through a decision of the Supreme Court. And now it's a boule-
vard in fact, and one of the finest long drives in the city, famed for its mag-
nificent stretches of roadway. Jackson Boulevard, with its unpretentious
gate, flanked on one side by a theatre building, on the other by a typical
Halsted Street saloon, stretches away from there as far as the eye can reach.
The roadway, forty -four feet wide, smooth as a marble mantel in a parlor, is
one of the best bits of ashphaltum work in the world. On each side of the
street is a parked strip of gree"n running along the smooth asphaltum as
regularly as binding on a garment, separating the sufficient sidewalks from
the drive. At regular intervals, twenty -five feet apart, trees, young but full
of promise, bear pretty if not abundant foliage, and between them at stated
intervals are ornamental boulevard lamps on artistic supports. You drive
along by rows of houses that are comfortable even if the elegance that you
might expect to see on a boulevard is wanting. Right here is where you want
to bring your reflective and comparative quality into action and figure it out
that not much more than a year ago the boulevard was only a plain, hard-
working, every-day street, so rough that the babies were liable to be jolted
out of your family carriage during an afternoon's drive. You will be bound
to admit that the asphaltum roadway can't be surpassed, and the beauti-
ful foliage and the boulevard appurtenances generally grow more pleasing
as you drive along. And occasionally you see evidences of the boulevard
spirit cropping out in improvements on the old houses, that were good enough
for a "street," but were thought shabby for a boulevard. Here and there 011
each side you come upon a new residence that causes you to appreciate the
fact that the boulevard spirit has been perfected. For there are residences,
new ones, that are models. At every cross street we see evidences of airs be-
ing taken on in the way of improvements, and by the time Ashland Avenue is
reached and crossed you are convinced that nothing can beat Chicago and its
roadways. At that point, as you look west, the trees and the lamp posts be-
gin to come together far away, and Jackson Boulevard seems to have an end
in a yellow house with green blinds, and you gain the impression that you
have struck a blind boulevard. But you keep on and you see your error, and
at the same time a little bit of platting that you will find only in Chicago.
Beautiful "winding ways" are often seen, but a boulevard with a right angle
curve in it is something entirely Chicagoesque. A long time ago people who
owned prairie land out there concluded that the turnpike down to the city
would never need to run further than Hoyne Avenue, so somebody built a
house right across the road. His heirs and the heirs of his neighbors to the
west hold the property, and when the course of empire got to Hoyne Avenue
it had to go north a lew feet and turn a corner, and so Jackson Boulevard
comes to have an angle in it.
But it does not affect it, for it's rather refreshing to swing around the cor-
ner, for you come on to a continuation of the boulevard stretching away to
the west, beautiful as ever, with its foliage and manor swards of green. The
end comes at the portion of Garfield Park south of Madison Street, which is
now in the hands of the landscape artist and the workmen. The old trotting
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track has been torn up, and it will be the work of but few months to convert
the present unsightly field into a splendid recreation ground for the people.
It will include a speed track for horsemen, tracks for wheel riders and other
special features for the entertainment of patrons. It is indeed a beautiful sight
to look down the beautiful boulevard, behold the enterprise, and to view the
general improvement about its western terminus. But you can't go further
west just now without crossing the improvements under way, so turn the rig
around, or "right about face," and enjoy again the ease of Jackson Boulevard
back to the fashionable thoroughfare of the West Side magnificent and
stately Ashland Boulevard, whose only fault is that there is not enough of it
between Lake and Twelfth Streets, which mark its termini.
Ashland Boulevard really begins at the north end of Union Park, but the
few blocks of it that skirt that pretty little breathing place are generally con-
sidered as a part of the park, and the broad boulevard begins where it is
crossed by Madison Street, which stretches away to the east and west, the
most imposing retail business thoroughfare in the West. To Ashland Boule-
vard there is neither beginning nor end so far as its stateliness is concerned.
It is as wide as Michigan Boulevard and its roadway is much superior to the
South Side drive so famed and popular. The parking of the boulevard is
tasteful, and the general outlay of the thoroughfare is on a scale of magnifi-
cent distances. First one sees from Madison Street the massive Third Presby-
terian Church, and across a triangle from it rises, at the junction of Monroe
Street, Ogden Avenue and the boulevard, the pretty church of the Fourth
Baptist congregation, one of the most striking buildings in all Chicago. The
contrast in these two edifices is only a hint of the variety in architecture and
design that is encountered as the drive along the boulevard is pursued. Ash-
land Boulevard seems to be the one belt in Chicago that the smoke always
avoids. There is not a shadow of uncleanliness there. The white stone houses
that men built before they learned what a monster soft-coal-devouring Chicago
was going to be, are as immaculate as when they were erected. To the left
in driving north after crossing Monroe Street, one comes on the white-fronted
buildings of the Illinois Club real swell, and much the same to the West
Side that the Calumet is to the South Side. Across the broad street stands a
row of fine houses resting under the shade of great trees. It's always so
white, this row of houses, that it has come to be known as "ghost row." The
houses are of the old swell front, high-stoop style. They lack the modern,
but they do look so comfortable and respectable, that one keeps on thinking
well of them, even when the great and striking mansions that, in spacious
grounds, line the boulevard further south, bid him stop in admiration.
A characteristic of Ashland Boulevard is that every inch of ground has
not yet been given up to brick and stone. Its chief charm, indeed, is, that
distance prevails everywhere. The houses are not glued together. All of the
great mansions have settings of their own, great green yards with grav-
eled walks and drives and flower beds and shade trees, with lots of room for
the children, for lawn tennis devotees, and for fresh air. The style of archi-
tecture prevailing in the latest improvements on the boulevard is massive, but
there is no crowding.
Where Jackson and Ashland Boulevards cross is a beauty-spot. Carter
H. Harrison lives, there in a house that is old and out of date, but one sees so
little of the house, and the surroundings are so stately, so comforting, that
one wonders how the owner could cherish an ambition for any other pleasure
than simply living there in the old house. So Ashland Boulevard runs its
course with beauty, elegance, variety and spaciousness on every hand, im-
proving from end to end. That it is in great favor as a driveway, one learns
as he picks his way along its crowded asphaltum pavement on a summer
evening, and dodging here and there, and everywhere wheelwomen who seem
to find in Ashland Boulevard the choicest place of any for their invigorating
recreation. There is much to see in the way of elegant streets from the Boule-
vard besides its own residences and stately edifices. From the drive one
has a view of these eminently respectable and staid home streets, Adams, Mon-
roe, Van Buren and Harrison, and of marvelously developing Polk and Tay-
lor Streets. To the left, one sees the "medical" district, from the center of
94
which one sees the buildings that constitute the County. Hospital. Surround-
ing them he sees the medical colleges, private hospitals, schools and other
public buildings. But all too soon Ashland Boulevard comes to an end, and
Ashland Avenue continues on its course, still a good average street, far be-
yond the stock-yards, where it is finally lost in the prairies. As the end
comes, one looks back with admiration on the broad road, with its regular
trees, its pretty lamps and is wide sidewalks, separated from the broad road-
way by the smooth greensward; and there is a regret that there is only a mile
of the boulevard. The avenue should be asphalted further south than
Twelfth Street, and this will probably be done.
But there is consolation to the summer evening-outer, for at Twelfth Street
he leaves Ashland Boulevard for another grand drive maybe not so beautiful
as to all its surroundings, but certainly most inviting. Twelfth Street is one
of the city's wonders. The stranger who turns on to it from the Ashland Road
is amazed, for right at that junction he becomes impressed with the wonder-
ful versatility of the "marvel city." For Twelfth Street Boulevard is demo-
cratic. One can find everything there. The asphaltum pavement in the cen-
ter, wide and smooth as any in the country, is perfectly parked for an even
mile. On either side of it run street-car tracks and traffic roads paved with
blocks. These are separated from the boulevard proper by plats twelve feet
wide, bearing small but splendid trees, from the foliage of which, when they
have grown, shade will b.e cast alike on the equipages that are entitled to roll
along the smooth drive and on the humble yellow street-cars, laden with hard-
working people, that toil along on either side. There are noangleson Twelfth
Street Boulevard. It is laid out with beautiful lines. The curbs are rounded.
At the street intersections the parks between the drive and the traffic roads
come to no abrupt angular ends. They terminate in curved inclosures, and
this plan constitutes one of the most pleasing features of the boulevard. The
sidewalks are wide and the greensward that lines the edge of the pavements
of the other city boulevard is also found on Twelfth Street. The sidewalks
are also lined with young trees planted regularly, giving four rows of trees
that make attractive lines of green from Ashland Boulevard to Oakley Street.
Twelfth Street Boulevard is not a residence thoroughfare. Neither is it a bus-
iness street. It's a people's road. It is lined with business buildings in the
main, but a portion of every building is given up to homes. The buildings,
or at least such of them as have been erected since Twelfth Street took on
boulevard airs, are modern, substantial, and of unending variety. No busi-
ness in particular is in the ascendency. Everything is, of course, on the re-
tail plan. Dry goods stores, groceries, meat markets, beer saloons, undertak-
ing establishments, and ail other conceivable enterprises flourish side by side.
What few structures there are along the line devoted to strictly home pur-
poses are of unpretentious mien. Indeed, a good many of them are shabby,
but that there is a pride among the residents is demonstrated by the constant
swish of the paint brush and the broom. For everything along the boulevard
is as scrupulously clean as the little thatched cot of the poem that school chil-
dren weep over. There are more children on Twelfth Street Boulevard than
on any other in the city, and they enjoy the street. They come from the nar-
row, unimproved, and in many instances miserable streets that intersect the
wide-stretching boulevard, which is their park and playground. They drive
their goats and dogs hitched to their box many of them soap-box carts
about, fully as happy and equally as healthy as their neighbors on the more
aristocratic streets. The drive makes everybody equal, for its beauties are as
free and accessible to the man who is driving along in charge of a sawdust
cart or a coal wagon on one of the traffic roads as they are to the person who
lolls on luxurious cushions in a carriage on the wide stretch of asphaltum.
Twelfth Street Boulevard is the people's highway. It's as big as the people.
It is by far the widest road in town, and to the eye it is the most stately, even
though it lacks imposing architectural surroundings found on other boule-
vards. And to one who reflects and compares there come wonderful manifes-
tations of the achievements of Chicago's dash and progress. The improve-
ment has been of an amazing quality and a lasting quality. And if one sighs
for the spice of life, variety, he can get it by looking either way from the boule-
Resideiice of West Park Commissioner Hermauii Weinhardt.
near Wicker Park.
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vard and see the loveliness and slovenliness with a single glance. From the
head of the boulevard which turns into Ogden Boulevard at Oakley Avenue
one can look back and through the great expanse of the boulevard into old
Twelfth Street a narrow business and retail street. Looking west the street
runs on wide as the boulevard portion of it, seemingly, to the horizon. Rising
from it on either side are buildings everywhere and substantial ones at that.
All that part of the street will come in for improvements some day. Where
Twelfth Street Boulevard, Ogden Avenue and Oakley Avenue come together
there is an excellent view. One can look miles either way on Oakley Avenue,
gaze down between the stretch of busy stores on Ogden Avenue that ten years
ago was an unpaved road with uneven sidewalks, and see at the same time
two boulevards Ogden Avenue and Twelfth Street.
Ogden Boulevard runs to the southwest from Twelfth Street Boulevard.
It is planned on exactly the same lines as the latter, of which it really is a contin-
uation. About the first thing to attract on Ogden Avenue Boulevard, outside
of its own stateliness and evidences of improvement, is the great viaduct that
carries the boulevard over a number of railroads and over scores of puffing
locomotives and jingling freight trains that seem to be moving at that point
at all hours. The Ogden Avenue viaduct is a great piece of engineering. It
is a light and airy structure to the eye, But it is as strong as steel and iron
can be wrought together by human skill. At the same time it carries a most
pleasing appearance and one of safety and endurance. The asphaltum of the
boulevard will be laid in the middle bed of the viaduct, while the traffic roads,
street-car tracks, and sidewalks will be carried along just as they are on the
level streets, save that there will be winding approaches. The approaches to
the viaduct are of easy grade, and when they are completed they will be quite
artistic. One taking a drive along the boulevard can stop on the viaduct long
enough to see Chicago, or a portion of it. As to its industrial features, it is a
busy city, as one can see from the tangle of tracks that mean an exit from the
city of only a few of its scores of railway lines. The tracks are skirted as far
as we can see by great factories of every character. After crossing the via-
duct, the boulevard runs up, broad as ever, to the gates of Douglas Park,
filled with flowers, and lakes and shade, and winding drives of length sufficient
to keep one here traveling over them for an hour, before leaving the park at
its western side, and emerging on Douglas Boulevard, which runs west, to
connect with the broad road that stretches away for miles and ends in Garfield
Boulevard from Douglas Park to Garfield Park is one and one-
halfTniles long. As it stands now, it is a right good gravel road, smooth and
straight and capable of drawing better speed out of the family horse than the
asphaltum roads. The trees are already planted and grown into splendid pro-
portions, a feature that it takes a long time to perfect. There is not much
that is. novel on either Douglas or Central Park Boulevards. The country is a
flat one. But one can see the city crawling up on and filling up the prairie.
There are streets platted, and gas lamps, and real estate agents' for-sale signs
offering homes.}
Crossings/Test Twelfth Street, one comes upon a lot of red rakish build-
ings, whence issue cries of agony. Those buildings constitute the city's dog
pound, and the cries are from the victims of the dog catchers' brass loops. It's
the place of incarceration and death of the city's vagrant dogs. If one has
right good eyes he can look far across the country and see the city's home for
its petty criminals, the bridewell. Driving north to where Albany Avenue
stretches off southwest, Douglas Boulevard passes between the Garfield Park
race track, and the new pait of Garfield Park proper, which is now in the
hands of the landscape gardeners and their forces. Across to the east is the
asphalt ribbon of Jackson Boulevard and its lamps and trees. One leaves the
rattle of cable cars, and, swinging around a winding road, jostles over the
cable road tracks, and finds himself riding along under the heavy shade of the
great trees of pretty Garfield Park. If one is going to give cime and attention
to all the attractions that park contains, with pretty flower beds, its lake, its
conservatory, etc., he had better make up his mind to take a day to the task.
To traverse its pretty drives and lakes takes a matter of half an hour, and at
98
the end of that time the main gate of the park is reached and before one stretch-
ing east is majestic Washington Boulevard, straight as an arrow and ending
as it appears in a maze of foliage and church spires. The gates of Garfield
Park are attractive and full of welcome. Two roadways lead into it, each
diverging from Washington Boulevard and winding their ways around little
flower beds.
Two grand residences mark the west end of the boulevard. They are the
homes of G. W. Spofford and J. C. Shipley. All the homes on the handsome
boulevard are beautiful, but they lose in the features of latter day architecture
as you drive eastward toward Union Park. The home of John Eizner, not far
from Garfield Park, is one of the latest in design and originality.
Washington Boulevard has cottages too, but they are all in strict accord,
in taste if not in dimensions. Everything along the splendid street is built
with a view to having its appearance attractive. Even the doctors have taken
away the business air of their house fronts, and the face of every building be-
tween Union and Garfield Parks tells of home.
Spacious grounds about the residences are not wanting, but the houses
are built closer together than on Ashland Boulevard, which it meets at Union
Park, one of the smallest, but one of the most attractive breathing spots in
the city. The view from the junction of the two beautiful boulevards is
grand, with splendid buildings devoted to home, business and religion in sev-
eral directions, and with the pretty park, its flowers, and its stone bridge and
its stone- walled pool in another direction. The administration buildings of
the West Park Board occupy one corner of the little park, while near its cen-
ter is reserved a spot where soon artificially wrought bronze will show the
gallant Phil Sheridan on his famous ride to ' Winchester, twenty miles away,"
a gift of our enterprising fellow-citizen, Charles T. Yerkes.
But our ride is nearly over. You are back at Halsted Street, busy, noisy
Halsted Street, four blocks away from the entrance to Jackson Boulevard,
where you started on your summer evening's ride but a short time before.
You have travelled something like eight miles over perfect roads, and about
half that distance over roads nearly perfect. On every hand you have had
cause to enjoy yourself and to be impressed with amazement at the marks of
improvement, at the magnificence of the boulevards, at the elegance of Chi-
cago homes, of the beauties that are within the city's boundaries, and at the
general spirit, enterprise, greatness and grandeur of Chicago, You are re-
freshed by your outing, full of new information, and altogether glad that
you are in Chicago.
The following tables show the length, width and breadth of the West Side
Boulevards.
HUMBOLDT BOULEVARD.
LIN. FEET.
Width, 250 feet, from Western Ave. to Logan Square 4,875 4-10
400 " Logan Square 669
250 " from Logan Square to Palmer Place 2,264 7-10
400 " Palmer flace 1,699 4-10
" I 230 " from Palm er Place to North Avenue ...3,73015-100
Total distance, lineal feet 13,238 65-100
Total area, acres 90
CENTRAL BOULEVARD.
LIN. FEET.
Width, 400 feet, from Augusta Street to Grand Ave 890
263
400
250
400
250
Grand Ave. to Sacramento Square 2 206 5-10
Sacramento Square 400
Sacramento Sq. to Central Park Sq 3,662 6 10
Central Park Square 400
Central Park Sq. to Garfield Park 420
Total distance, lineal feet 7,979 1-10
Total area, acres 47
Residence of George Bahlfr, Ex West Park Commissioner, iiearWicker Park.
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DOUGLAS BOULEVARD.
"Width, 250 feet from Colorado Ave., to Square south of 12th St. 4,077
400 " (of square) 400
250 ' ' from Square to Douglas Park 3,790
Total distance, lineal feet 8,267
Total area, acres 50
SOUTHWESTERN BOULEVARD.
LIN. FEET.
Width, 250 lineal feet from Douglas Park to east turn 2,950
" east turn 870
. " " from east turn along California Ave., to
Thirty-first Street 3,921
Along Thirty-first Street to Western Avenue 2,267
Western Avenue south to Canal 740
Total distance, lineal feet ] 1,148
Total are , acres 75
CITY BOULEVARDS.
Washington, 66 feet wide 1 .25 miles.
80 0.875 '
100 ' 1. 3.125 miles.
Ashland 100 1.
Twelfth Street 70 . 0.89
OgdenAve. 70 1.48
Jackson 66 2.52
" 73 0.25
" 80 0.75 3.50
Total length - 9.995 miles.
MINERAL WELLS.
Each of the three west side parks possesses a most attractive feature in
the shape of an artesian well, containing medical properties of a valuable
character.
The analysis of the water of these wells, described in a report by chemist
J. E. Siebel, is as follows: One wine gallon of water of the Artesian well in
Garfield Park contains :
Chloride of Magnesium 8.352 grains.
Chloride of Sodium 87.491
Bromide Magnesium 0.301
Sulphate of Lime 21.114
Carbonate of Lime 14.802
Carbonate of Iron 0.712
Sulphate of Soda 13.645
Silicate of Soda 0.508
Alumina traces.
Organic Substances and Sulphuretted Hydrogen none.
Total 146.925 grains.
Free Carbonic Acid 13.44 cubic inches
Temperature at the well. 71.4 Fahrenheit.
This water not only contains the largest amount of sol id substances of any
of the mineral waters in this neighborhood, but it also contains them so
arranged and in such quantities that it cannot fail to prove of great benefit
in a variety of cases. While its principal character is that of a Saline Water, it
still contains a sufficient amount of Iron to allow of its being classified as a
102
Chalybeate Water in consequence of which its use is indicated in cases in
which anaemia is a prominent feature. The saline and calcic properties of the
water warrant its use in special cases of indigestion, diseases of the urinary
organs, rheumatism, and kindred afflictions. The complex character of the
water will be found specially useful in complicated cases, the disposition of
which must of course be left to the practicing physician, and in this connec-
tion the presence of Bromide of Magnesium will also be considered an im-
portant factor. Technically speaking this water is also a Thermal Water, as
its temperature is above the mean annual temperature of Chicago, a feature
which may also be of some significance at a future day when the subject of
public bath houses will receive more attention.
One wine gallon of water of the well in Douglas Park contains:
Chloride of Magnesium 8.236 grains.
Chloride of Sodium 2.320 "
Sulphate of Soda 28.321 grains
Sulphate of Lime 6.422 "
Carbonate of Lime 11.149 "
Carbonate of Iron 0.103 "
Silicate of Soda 0.731 "
Alumina traces.
Sulphuretted Hydrogen faint traces.
Organic Substances none.
Total '. 57.282 grains.
Free Carbonic Acid 10.22 cubic inches.
Temperature at the well 57.1 Fahrenheit.
This water, although in point of general medicinal usefulness it is not
equal to that of Garfield Park, will nevertheless be found beneficial in special
cases. The calcic character of the water is modified by the predominance of
Soda Sulphate, in which this water differs from that of most other Artesian
wells. These proportions, together with the small amount of Iron which the
water contains, will recommend the same to the attention of thoughtful
physicians.
One wine gallon of water of the well in Humboldt Park contains:
Chloride of Magnesium 7.702 grains.
Sulphate of Soda 23.211
Sulphate of Magnesia 4.132
Sulphate of Lime 10.229
Carbonate of Lime 12.131
Carbonate of Iron 0.065
Silicate of Soda 0.763
Alumina traces.
Sulphuretted Hydrogen fainttraces.
Organic Substances none.
Total ., 58.233 grains.
Free Carbonic Acid 1 1.13 cubic inches.
Temperature at the well 63.5 Fahrenheit.
The composition of the water at this well is similar to that of the Doug-
las Park well, but the amount of purgative salts is less, and their action is
counteracted by the presence of larger quantities of Sulphate of Lime. It
also contains less Iron than Douglas Park water.
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105
LIST OF WEST PARK COMMISSIONERS.
The following Commissioners have been appointed by the Governor from
the origin of the West Chicago Park Board up to the present time :
NAMES OF COMMISSIONERS.
Date of Commissions.
Terms.
Philetus W. Gates *
April 20, 1869
1 year
Henry Greenebaum
" 20 1869
3 years
Charles C. P. Holden
" 20, 1869
2 "
Clark Lipe *
" 20, 1869
7 "
Isaac R. flitt
" 20, 1869
6 "
Eben F. Runyan
" 20, 1869
5 "
George W. Stanford. ... 4 ....
" 20, 1869
4
David Cole *
July 15, 1869
8 months
David Cole *
March 1, 1870
7 years
Charles C. P. Holden . . .
February 28, 1871
7 "
Henry Greenebaum . . .
March 21, 1872
7 "
Emil Dreier
" 19, 1873
2 "
George W. Stanford
. " 19, 1873
7 "
Eben F. Runyan .....
" 5, 1874
7 "
Alden C. Millard
April 24, 1875
7 "
Louis Schultz
" 24, 1875
2 "
Clark Lipe *
March 1, 1876
7 "
J. F. Adolf Muus *
September 30, 1876
4M "
Willard Woodard *
October 8, 1877
7 "
S. H. McCrea*
8, 1877
2 "
Peter Schuttler
11, 1877
4 months
Emil Wilken
11, 1877
5 years
Sextus N. Wilcox *
11, 1877
6 "
E. E. Wood
11, 1877
4 "
John Brenock
20, 1877
4 months
John W. Bennett
November 24, 1877
2)^ years
John Brenock .... . .
March 2, 1878
7
George Rahlfs
6, 1879
1 year
S. H. McCrea *
April 24, 1879
7 years
George Rahlfs
March 1, 1880
7
Consider B. Carter
April 19, 1881
7 "
-J. Frank Lawrence
July 8, 1881
2 "
Harvey L. Thompson
March 1, 1882
7 "
Patrick McGrath
February 15, 1883
1 month
Patrick McGrath
May 8, 1883
7 years
David W. Clark
August 15, 1883
3 "
Christian C. Kohlsaat
November 26, 1883
^A "
H. S. Burkhardt
March 7, 18-4
7 "
Christoph Tegtmeyer, Sr. *
" 12, 1885
7 " '
George Mason
" 6, 1886
7 "
Willard Woodard *
April 19, 1886
6 "
Fred. M. Blount ...
22, 1887
7 "
Christian C. Kohlsaat
March 26, 1888
7 "
Harvey L. Thompson ....
April 20, 1889
7 "
C. K. G. Billings .
" 20, 1889
10 months
C. K. G. Billings ....
March 19, 1890
7 years
John Kralovec
May 10, 1890
5
H. Weinhardt
March 18, 1891
7 "
J. L. Fulton
May 22, 1891
9 mouths
J. L. Fulton
March 24, 1892
7 years
Deceased.
106-
Voiees from the Field of the Dead.
Translated from the German of KARL GEROK, by E. F. L GAUSS-
1. PET. i. 24.
For all flesh is as grass
And all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
As in a dream while lost in meditation
I came upon this garden's desolation ;
Who owns this field, this verdant soil I tread ?
"The dead."
Why tarriest thou, my foot, before this wicket ?
Behold the blooming flowers in plat and thicket !
Whence comes this fragrance rising in sweet waves ?
" From graves."
See here, oh mortal, where thy paths are ending,
Though snake-like through the world their course they're wending,
It rustles at thy feet midst waste and rust :
" In dust 1 "
Where are they all, men's ever changing chances,
The fickle fortunes which this earth advances ?
These crosses preach the fact to every eye :
" Gone by ! "
Where are the hearts which in their days' brief measure
So faintly beat in grief, so high in pleasure ?
Which once so ardently by love and hate were swayed ?
" Decayed I "
Where are the thoughtless who with health were brimming
And through this world like butterflies were skimming ?
What lies here covered by these mossy stones ?
" But bones 1 "
Where are the strong ones who through life were scouring,
And heavenward their haughty schemes were towering ?
With croaking voice the ravens cry it flurried :
" They're buried ! "
Where are the dear ones whom, when death did sever
Love swore their memory should last forever ?
The cypress -trees the answer have begotten :
" Forgotten 1 "
And saw no eye which way all those are throngins ?
And spans the grave not the most fervent longing ?
The gloomv firs, lo, shake their crowns forever :
" No, never ! "
t
The evening winds in anguish I hear screaming,
My spirit lulls in melancholy dreaming,
The sky grows dim, its glow sends the last ray :
" Away I "
gardens sf the Dead
CHICAGO'S CEMETERIES.
INTRODUCTORY.
From ancient times to the present day the burial places of the dead have
received much tender care on the part of the living among all civilized
people. The decoration of the graves that contain the bodies of dear relatives
or famous persons, speaks of the attachment, love and veneration still felt for
those slumbering there and these outward signs of love were, in olden times,
especially prominent and characteristic marks of human feelings and
indicated the degree of civilization of the various nations and communities.
It is a great pleasure, though it be mingled with sadness, to give ourselves
up for a short time to quiet reveries at the grave of a dear friend or relative
and to bestow upon its mound that loving regard which is prompted by the
truest and most unselfish love the human heart is capable of.
Much attention is given in Europe to the tasteful arrangement and
adornment of cemeteries, but America has made such rapid and marked
progress in this direction within the second half of the present century that
at present our own country stands unexcelled in point of beauty of burial
places, that surround the various cities of the Union. The art of landscape-
gardening has been rapidly advanced by the application and opportunity
offered by our great pnrk systems and thereby the cemeteries have chiefly
profited. This is especially seen in the improvements going on in the
older " cities of the dead," where the clumsy fences and similar unseemly
enclosures around single graves or lots are rapidly giving way to the "lawn"
or "park system," which gives these places a more cheerful appearance.
There are of course people who consider a grave-yard full of gloom produced
by deep shades of dense trees and bushes and hedges monotonously inter-
sected by long and rigidly straight paths and roads, though it be otherwise
entirely void of landscape beauty, the proper place for the burial of the dead.
These people are of the opinion that a cemetery ought in all of its appoint-
ments and surroundings correspond to the inner sorrow of the mourner and
impress him with its gloom never to be forgotten. But, why should this be ?
Is it not a beautiful and prominent trait of the human character to comfort
fellow-men when sorrows overtake them, and lift them up from the dark
earth pointing out to them the bright heavens above ? If that is charity, it is
duty. Is it not the duty then of the managements of cemeteries also to do
what is in their power, to make the visits of people who mourn the loss of a
parent, child or relative to the graves of the latter less sad, to turn the sorrow-
ful pilgrimage into a source of comfort? We know alas, a great many of
us from personal experience ! that the grief and sadness filling the hearts of
men when their loved ones are taken away from them by grim death, lose a
great deal of their bitterness and sting, if at the time when we visit their
112
cherished graves, our way takes us through a place with pleasant green
lawns, with sweet flowers clustering here and there, where the beautiful
sun of the heavens is permitted to spread his golden beams over the graves
and their flowers, where the graver yard is not a dark and gloomy and com-
fortless spot but a place of consolation and peace.
Flowers and blooming shrubs are nowhere more in place than in ceme-
teries and they are much more appropriate than are costly and pompous
memorials of cold stone which are much oftener boasting monuments for the
living than the dead. It is true that there are some works of art to be found
in our cemeteries, tasteful in style and masterly in execution, but by far the
greater number of the monuments are simply towering obelisks with or
without urns crowning them. Why these obelisks, which are evidently of
Egyptian origin, are so popular in this country is difficult to understand ; one
might get the impression that the obelisk with the urn is the emblem of
the American religion.
In olden times, when the Greeks and Romans and some other nations
cremated their dead, the urn was in place, but what meaning it may have in
our days, when the remains of man are mostly interred, cannot be com-
prehended ; they certainly do not contain the ashes of deceased persons nor
any other relic of them, but are simply blocks of stone in a form that makes
them sad reminders of the losses we have sustained. T^ie obelisk itself only
impresses by its height and the value of the granite.
Tablets and crosses made of wood are more numerously found within
the older cemeteries, especially in many of the "God's Acres" of the Germans.
These seem to have been preferred, because the want of space in some burial
places makes it necessary to re-sell grave lots after a given number of years.
The fact is a sad one that we should not be allowed to remain undisturbed in
our last resting place, and some times the inevitable is brought to our notice
with painful emphasis. It has only lately transpired, that the son of an old
German veteran, who was buried some years ago in a Lutheran cemetery near
this city, was looking in vain for his father's grave to erect a monument upon
it. At last the management of the cemetery had to admit that it had sold the
lot in question to other people.
Happily such cases are not met with in any of our large and beautiful
"Gardens of the Dead " ; what the future, however, will bring forth and what
disposition will be made of the cemeteries when the living shall demand the
space occupied by them at present, is a matter of conjecture and a question
which we will not attempt to answer.
Gracelancl. Monument of Frederick and Catharine Wacker.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CHICAGO CEMETERIES.
Prior to 1835 this city had no stated place for the interment of the dead.
Up to that time the friends and relatives of the deceased buried them in some
convenient spot near their homes. Then, as time passed, the people living
near the forks of the river, had a common piece of ground, where they buried
their dead. The bodjes from old Fort Dearborn mostly found a resting place
north of the main river and east of the old dwelling in which John Kinzie
lived. Here too, the latter was buried in 1828, but in J835 his bones were dis-
interred and removed to the North Side cemetery, which was situated where
to day the north side pumping station is standing, but even there they found
no rest, for in 1842 they were again taken up and transferred to the Lincoln
Park Cemetery, from where they were removed to their last resting place in
Graceland.
In 1832 there was a small burying ground near the northwest corner of
Wabash Avenue and Lako Street and there the soldiers, who died of cholera
in that year, were interred. Quite a number of deceased persons were buried
along the banks of both branches of the river and it frequently happened in
later days, that the workmen employed in excavating came across forgotten
graves, without being able to ascertain, whose remains the mouldering coffins
contained.
In the summer of 1835, the official surveyor of the town was commissioned
to select and survey two pieces of ground that could be used for cemetery
purposes, one of the tracts, situated in the south division of the city, to con-
tain sixteen acres, the other, which was to be established on the North Side,
to have an area of ten acres. These were the first regular cemeteries of Chi-
cago, and they were located as follows: on the south side near what is to-day
Twenty-third Street and the lake shore; on the north side near Chicago Ave-
nue and immediately west of the lake shore. As soon as these grounds were
turned over to public use, interments were prohibited elsewhere within the
limits of the town. The South Side tract served as a burying ground until
the year 1842, and five years later the bodies slumbering there were taken
up by order of the city authorities, and re-interred in the Lincoln Park Cem-
etery, which in the mean time had been laid out and put to use. This tract,
of which more details are given in the chapter relating to Lincoln Park, con-
tained three thousand one hundred and thirty-six burial lots and was com-
monly known as the ' 'Milliman tract." Here also the remains interred in the
old North Side cemetery near Chicago Avenue found their next resting place,
but in 1865, when the city council ordered the vacation of this cemetery, they
and all the rest were again dis-interred. The lot-owners were authorized to
select other lots of equal size in any of the newly founded cemeteries in ex-
change for the lots surrendered in the Lincoln Park tract. At that time Rose-
hill, Graceland and Oakwoods had been established, and when the two years
had expired, within which the city had to clear the "Milliman tract" of all the
bodies buried there, the city council named the Aldermen Woodard, Lawson
and Wicker as a committee to make the selection for nearly two hundred lot-
owners, who had failed to hand in their claims and whose whereabouts could
not be ascertained.
The bodies were divided among Graceland, Rosehill. Calvary and Oak-
woods. In the latter cemetery the city held the title to the entire "Section B,
third Division," which had been purchased and upon the ownersof all lots, in this
manner exchanged, were conferred the privilege of obtaining a deed to the
new lot. The Chicago cemetery in Lincoln Park, where the present Alderman
from the twenty-first ward, Joseph II. Ernst, held the position of Sexton for a
number of years, in 1869 passed under the control of the Lincoln Park Com-
missioners.
116
GRACELAND.
Before the close of the year 1893 the number of the silent inhabitants of
the necropolis Qraceland will have reached 60,000.
This cemetery is justly famed as one of the finest among Chicago's cities
of the dead, and occupies a similar rank here as does Greenwood Cemetery in
Brooklyn, Spring Grove in Cincinnati, Forest Hill or Mount Auburn in
Boston. Among the 500 cemeteries in this country there is but a small
number that can compare with Graceland in point of beauty of landscape and
the splendor of its monuments. But the greatest of the remarkable works,
which the art of the landscape-gardener has created there, belong to recent
times, to the last 15 years.
At the time when the older sections of this cemetery were first laid out for
their present purpose, it was still the fashion to surround the family-lots with
low stone walls or fence them in with iron railings or natural hedges and then
to adorn them with monuments and grave-stones, more or less gorgeous, as the
means of the owners would permit. About 50 acres of the grounds were dis-
figured in this way. Of course at that time this ancient system had not as yet
been recognized as a mistake. That did not become apparent until later on,
when the beauties and charms of the park-system created by Strauch had
been introduced and welcomed everywhere. But what has thus far been ap-
plied of this system at Graceland entitles this cemetery to be termed an ideal
burial-ground. We see it well exemplified in the larger eastern half,
where Nature, assisted by art, produces alternately solemn and cheerful
effects, where the undulating, park -like scenery gives the impression of repose
and peace. We see there the chief aim of art is to but modestly indicate
what the skillful hand of man can do in artificial and architectural ornamen-
tation, and to leave the main work and effect to Nature itself.
The principal charm of "new Graceland" is found in the large rolling
lawns, which appear as grand velvety green carpets, from which the blooming
decorations of the low mounds dotting the lawns here and there stand out
like many-colored embroideries. Nothing can be compared with the impres-
sive simplicity, which is seen in this serio-bright picture, neither the stately
trees with their heavy foliage, nor the well-kept shrubbery throwing their
shades over the resting places of the dead, nor yet the bright-blooming flowers
and grasses covering the graves, moistened by the dews of heaven or the tears of
the mourners. It is the earnest purpose of the present managers of the
cemetery to check the excesses in the decoration of burial places so exten-
sively practiced, and to convince the people, that overdoing things in this
direction only tends to show to the world the wealth left by the deceased, but
is no indication of good taste.
An effort is also to be made to convince people of the impropriety of
geometrical flower-beds upon lots; they are not in keeping with the sanctity of
the place, but rather remind one of a pleasure-garden. In short, the rules laid
down for the park-part of Graceland show the intention of the management not
to permit any longer the close erection of monuments and grave-stones nearly
alike in size and form, nor the erection of monuments of too great a height.
A very commendable advance in the general embellishment of this
cemetery, and one worthy of imitation, has of late been noticeable in the
southeastern portion,where the single graves are found. In this part in recent
times many graves were seen as is alas! the case also in other cemeteries
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for which in years no one had cared and which therefore were covered with high
grass and weeds and in every respect showed the greatest negligence. The
flowers and the obvious care that had been bestowed on some of the other
f raves by loving hands, only made this wild disorder the more noticeable,
'hese graves, forgotten by the living and allowed to go to ruin by them, have
now been cleared of the weeds and grass covering them by the management ;
the mounds have been levelled and the whole has been changed into a beau-
tiful lawn, on which appear here and there the tops of small numbered stones,
marking the resting-places of the dead. This together with the care given to
the other graves by loving hands, conveys to the whole the character of a flower-
garden, divided up into small sections, and the shade-trees and bushes lend it
the additional characteristics of a park. The greatest similarity 1o the gardens
of the living is found in the north-eastern part of the cemetery, where the
landscape is embellished by a fine lake with a wooded island in the centre and
surrounded on all sides by fine trees and blooming shrubs. In the immediate
neighborhood of the lake are the most expensive family-lots, which are in
great demand. They are grouped in "sections" and are given such names as
"Lakeside," "Bellevue," "Fair Lawn," "Maplewood," "Ridgeland" and the
like. They have all been given undulating surfaces, which, together with the
beautifully bright-green lawns showing good and constant care, attract the
wealthy buyers. Here ground is sold at a dollar to a dollar and twenty
five cents per square foot, and as the family lots in this neighborhood
contain from 5000 to 12,000 square feet, only persons blessed abundantly
with this world's goods can think of buying. The "brotherhood in riches"
is one of the chief requirements to obtain a family-lot, but the same
condition we also find in other cemeteries. The prices of lots in the leading
cemeteries about New York, Philadelphia and Boston range from f 1.50 to
$5.00 per square foot. It is sometimes regretted that man is dependent even
in death upon the prices asked for land, and that people of small means must
content themselves with burial places in the out of the way corners of the
cemeteries. The adage, that in death all are equal, is therefore not true.
But there is another way of looking at the matter. If a cemetery as a
whole is considered as a work of art, the broad stretches of lawn, the grand
spreading of trees and the beautiful quiet vistas that can only be preserved
where there are very large lots, add a value to even the smallest lot.
Near the centre of the cemetery stands the new chapel not long since
completed. It is in the gothic style of architecture and the whole building
is reared in rich colored Wisconsin granite, whilst red tile cover the roof. The
north half of the chapel has a red tile-floor and is supplied with long
cushioned pews, whilst the south half is filled with beautiful plants and ferns.
The ceiling and walls are decorated with fresco-paintings in harmony with
the bright and pleasing color of the benches, doors and wainscoting, which
are all constructed of oak finished in natural color. In the middle of the
floor is an oblong drop door through which the coffin is lowered after the
funeral services. The lower rooms, partly built under a hill, contain the
heating apparatus, a coal-magazine and the vault proper, on the sides of which
there are 298 receptacles for coffins. These receptacles are constructed
entirely of heavy slate-plates.
Much care has been spent upon the immediate vicinity of the chapel.
Few persons would guess that the tine elms which give PO much dignity and
grace to this building were planted as late as the year 1889. The largest of
these is about 60 feet in height, and has a trunk of 2% feet in diameter. It is
believed that this tree is the largest one that was ever transplanted up to
that time, but since then a still larger tree has been moved a long distance and
planted inGraceland. The abundant foliage with its dark green color shows
that these trees have taken a good hold on the soil and are quite at home in
their new locations.
Besides numerous elaborate monuments Qraceland has also many private
vaults which are however, aside from a few exceptions, no ornament to the
cemetery. The exceptions are the vaults more recently erected. These are
5 *
120
built entirely above ground under the direction of the management and are
embellished by artistic decorations of real merit, for other ornaments are no
longer suffered at Graceland. The praiseworthy exceptions are led by the
vaults of Martin A, Ryerson, Henry H. Getty, William H. Mitchell and those
of the Huck and Schoenhofen families.
The first person buried at Graceland was Daniel Page Bryan, who had
first been laid to rest in the old city grave-yard (now Lincoln Park), but was
afterwards disinterred with about 2,000 others and buried at Graceland. It
may also be mentioned, that the original charter of the Company, granted
in 1861, was in 1865 amended to the effect that 10 per cent of all receipts from
the sale of lots must be turned over to the trustees to form a permanent fund
for the purpose of keeping the cemetery in order.
Graceland Cemetery was established to meet the necessities, which a gen-
eral demand for extramural interments had created. Thomas B. Bryan, in
1860, purchased the eighty acres of land, which to-day comprise the principal
portion of the beautiful grounds and in the year following the Legislature
conferred upon Mr. Bryan, William B. Ogden, Edwin H. Sheldon, Sidney
Sawyer, Geo. P. A. Healy and others the power to incorporate as the "Grace-
land Cemetery Company," of which the live persons named constituted the
first board of managers. The act granted to the company the privilege of ac-
quiring a tract of land to be used for cemetery purposes, not to exceed five
hundred acres.
The first president of the board, Mr. Bryan, remained in office until 1865,
when he was succeeded by James L. Reynolds, but at the expiration of the
latter's term, Mr. Bryan again assumed the duties of the office from 1868 to
1878, after which time, Thomas E. Patterson was elected president, and he
held that office for a term of three years. Then Bryan Lathrop became pres-
ident, which office he has since filled in a manner highly creditable to himself
and his fellow-members of the board; besides being president, he also is the
treasurer of the company, which made a wise move when it procured the
valuable services a number of years ago of the well known landscape architect
and cemetery superintendent Mr. O. C. Simonds, to whose skill and good taste
may be ascribed many of the natural beauties and fine landscape effects this
cemetery is justly renowned for.
After the organization of the company in 1861, it acquired forty-five acres
west of the original section, then, three years later, five acres east of it and in
J867 the entire territory was increased by one hundred and nine acres more,
which were situated north of it. At that time the Legislature was induced to
pass a law, confining the area for cemetery purposes to eighty -six acres, the
section improved. This measure precipitated long and weary complications,
which were not adjusted until the year 1879. Then the limits of the cemetery
were fixed as follows: Green Bay road on the west, Stella Street on the east,
Sulzer Street on the north and Graceland Avenue on the south.
The cemetery is situated about two miles north of Lincoln Park and is
reached by the Chicago and Evanston Railroad, the trains of which land tljeir
passengers for Graceland at the handsome depot and office building the cem-
etery company has erected near the eastern boundary of the grounds; the horse
cars, connecting with the Clark Street cable-line at Diversey Street, also lead
to Graceland and beyond. The city office of this cemetery is in the Montauk
Block, No. 115 Monroe Street.
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ROSEHILL
One of the largest and most beautiful of the cemeteries surrounding our
city is Rosehill. It contains within its enclosure 300 acres of ground, but may
be enlarged at any time when it becomes necessary to 500 acres. The grounds
were dedicated on July 28th, 1859, which was an occasion of no small
significance.
Rosehill is situated 6% miles north of the Court house, and is reached
either by the Green Bay Road or the Chicago and North Western Railroad.
At the time when this cemetery was laid out many of the 100,000 in-
habitants our city had then considered the distance from it much too great
but yet, even the people who had originally laid out the old city grave yard
(now Lincoln Park) were found fault with for locating it too far out of the
city. Yet it took very few years before the growing city put its monster
arms around it and it became necessary to digoui the remains of those laid to
rest there but a short time before and to transfer them to cemeteries further
distant the dead had to give way to the living. And to-day again circum-
stances are taking the same turn once more, for Rosehill, St. Bonifacius,
Graceland, the German Lutheran cemetery and two Jewish burial grounds
yet further south are now all within the city limits and are surrounded on
all sides by human dwellings, which in some locations,/, i. in the neighbor-
hood of Graceland, are very rapidly growing in number. And how long will
it be before the cemeteries mentioned, at least the ones nearest the heart of the
city, will have to give way to the living, their necessities and improvements'?
Nothing will be able to withstand the growth of this still young giant not
even death.
Rosehill was selected as the general city burial grounds by a committee
appointed at the time by the City Council, chiefly on account of its high and
consequently dry location, the same being 30 to 40 feet above the level of Lake
Michigan, an advantage of great importance in a cemetery.
At the dedication of the cemetery there were present as many as 8000 to
10,000 people ; it was conducted under the auspices of the Order of Free-
masons. The dedicatory address was delivered by Dr. J. C. Blaney, then
the President of the Cemetery Company. Among other remarks, he made
the following:
ADDRESS OP DR. BLANEY.
"Ladies and Gentlemen: You are assembled to-day to witness and assist
in the dedication of this beautiful spot as a rural cemetery. Your presence
here in such numbers is accepted by those who have undertaken the work as
an earnest of your interest in their efforts to supply to Chicago that mournful
but necessary adjunct A City of the Dead.
The custom of burying the dead within the limits of large cities is one
which was unknown to the ancients, and resulted from the abuse of a privi-
lege granted, at first only as a mark of high distinction, to martyrs and saints,
and afterward claimed as aright by the rich and powerful, but ever depre-
cated by science and by the Church as detrimental to the public health.
By the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, cemeteries were by the most
rigorous enactments placed without the walls of cities and villages, and
this salutary provision was adopted in the discipline of the early Christian
Church.
It was only during the period of decadence of letters in the Middle Ages
that this custom, injurious to the living and unwarranted by any principle of
124
public hygiene, by good taste or by respect for the dead, was allowed to creep
iu as one of many evidences of stolid ignorance and degraded morals. With
the revival of letters efforts began to be made to remedy a custom, whose
consequences in the more crowded communities of Europe had come to be
seriously felt. To the clergy of France, and more especially to the Arch-
bishop of Toulouse, is due the credit of arousing public sentiment to the
dangers of intramural interments. In a most eloquent appeal, after rehears-
ing the abuses by which the practice had been introduced, he portrays vividly
the evils to which it gives rise, and exhorts the secular powers to assist the
efforts of the Church "to recall the ancient discipline on this point."
It was not, however, until 1765, that the Parliament of Paris, by legal
enactment, led the way to a remedy of these evils ; the French Government
adopted the same course, and those noble institutions "Pere la Chaise,"
"Vaugirard," and "Montmartre," were the first exemplars of those rural
cemeteries which both in Europe and America are at once the ornaments
and the patterns of horticultural tastes of so many large communities. I
have only to point you to Mt. Auburn, Greenwood, Laurel Hill, Forest
Lawn, Mt. Hope, and Spring Grove, as illustrious examples of the disposi-
tion in our country to a return to the correct taste and delicate sentiment
so beautifully expressed in the epitaph of Sophocles, the founder of Grecian
tragedy:
"Wind gentle evergreen, to form a shade
Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid;
Sweet ivy wind thy boughs and intertwine
With blushing roses and the clustering vine;
So shall thy lasting leaves, with beauty hung,
Prove a fit emblem of the lays he sung."
To-day inaugurates a movement in imitation of these examples, and in
the citizens of Chicago we look to sustain our efforts.
A brief statement of the history of the enterprise thus far, and of the
policy intended to be pursued .by the Board of Managers of Rosphill Ceme-
tery, will not be out of place. In the Autumn of 1858, a petition was pre-
sented to the Common Council of Chicago remonstrating against the further
interment of the dead in the city cemetery.
The gentlemen to whom the matter was referred, proceeded with their
duty with commendable zeal and promptness. They opened a correspondence
with the authorities of the several large cities of the United States and the
Canaxlas, procuring a vast amount of statistical information and numerous
documents. They also made a reconnoisance of the vicinity of Chicago, with
a view of effecting a new location for the city cemetery. Among other locali-
ties, the one upon which we now stand was examined, and in the unanimous
opinion of the committee, was not merely the best, but the only spot in all
respects suitable for the purpose.
The report of the committee attracted the attention of several of the
gentlemen corporators of the Rosehill Cemetery. The idea of the suitable-
ness of this tract of land for cemetery purposes had previously occurred to
them, but until the report was made to the Common Council adverse to the
continuance of the city cemetery, the movement was thought to be pre-
mature. This report suggested that the time had arrived when the public
sentiment of Chicago was prepared to support the efforts which might
be made to establish a rural cemetery at a convenient distance from the city
limits.
The Board of Managers of Rosehill Cemetery, appointed under the act
of incorporation, encouraged by the report of the Committee of the City
Council, and feeling bound to supply the need of a place for burial without
delay, initiated the preliminaries for the location of the cemetery at this
place. With this view they solicited and obtained the eminent counsel of J.
Jay Smith, E^q,, President of Laurel Hill Cemetery at Philadelphia, who, in
view of the importance of the movement to the future health and prosperity
of Chicago, sacrificing his convenience and other engagements in an incle-
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ment season of the year, visited Chicago and freely gave his assistance in
locating the grounds for the future cemetery, and both then and since has
been of eminent service by his advice in the management of the enterprise.
The Board of Managers would wish thus publicly to express their obligation
to this gentleman and their high estimation of his experience in the manage-
ment, of rural cemeteries, and the value of his counsels.
But, fellow citizens of Chicago and vicinity, with you it remains to
decide whether Rosehill is or is not to be your cemetery. We have made
very effort to supply your need. That effort will be continued, so that
you shall not blush to compare yours with the rural cemeteries of other and
older cities. But to effect this we must be sustained by your sympathy and
encouragement."
The~speaker himself was laid to rest under the leafy roof of the grove,
for which he had so great a liking, on the 13th day of December, 1874.
Thirty-four years have rolled down into eternity since that dedication.
Then only one person. Dr. J. W. Ludlam, slept the eternal sleep in its grounds,
to-day more than 25,000 are resting beneath its green sod, most of them in the
old portion of the cemetery, which is nearest the main entrance and com-
prises 80 acres. West of this old section, in which the erroneous practice of
earlier days to fence in graves and lots had taken place, the eye is attracted
by the park-like landscape into which that new part has been changed. Here
we see plainly the difference between the old and new system. On the one
side we behold the irregular mass of grave, stones forming an unsightly
chaos with the rusty, partly broken down iron fences, the delapidated and
crumbling stone-walls, the wild shoots of grass and the neglected graves, and
beyond the bright beauty and symmetry of smooth and green patches of lawn,
by which the graves are enclosed and here and there covered. What a differ-
ence! How fortunate, that the "old things have passed away and all things
have become new!" a comfort indeed upon the field of the dead. And here
it may be mentioned that the idea to give grave-yards the character of parks
originated with the f amous landscape-gardener Adolph Strauch, the creatorof
the beautiful Spring Grove Cemetery, near Cincinnati, who himself has gone
to his rest in the prime of life. Spring Grove Cemetery has ever since its
creation by Strauch been the model burial park and is widely copied by land-
scape gardeners in charge of cemeteries all over the country. The fact that
the new system is not without its opponents and enemies speaks loud in favor
of it for the world is full of old fogies and obstructionists.
The chief aim in the new part of Rosehill is to come as near to nature as
possible in all arrangements and appointments and thereby to produce true
landscape effects. This is done without leaving nature entirely to itself, for
every one knows what then would become of the wild dame unrestrained
nature soon becomes unnatural. Considerable skill is displayed in the plant-
ing of trees and shrubs, giving the cemetery at the same time a cheerful yet
solemn appearance. Unfortunately here too the harmony is endangered by
the bad tastes of some individual lot-owners, who have begun to disfigure the
place by numerous grave-stones and monuments of a similarity in the pat-
terns, that in most, cases they differ from each other only in the names of the
inscriptions. It is astonishing that the "manufacturers" of grave-monuments
content themselves with the everlasting sameness of their productions and
cannot summon enough energy and ambition to create something original in
their line at least once in a while. Original grave monuments are indeed the
most scarce products of our times. It is as if the obelisks filling the ceme-
teries everywhere had as so many colossal weeds propagated and promul-
gated indestructible seed, which had shot up all around. If those inclined to
weigh down the graves of their departed by heavy stones and perpetuate
for a time at least their own names by costly monuments over their tombs,
would only entrust the work to real artists, the appearance of our cemeteries
would greatly profit and the simple symmetrical beauty of well shaped
grave-mounds would no longer be drowned in the flood of unsuitable trash
now marring the simplicity, the solemnity and the natural grandeur of these
places.
128
The general character of the western portion of Rosehill cemetery, with
its lawn system and natural beauty, shows that the Superintendent of this
necropolis, Mr. George H. Scott, knows how to combine effectually the pleas-
ing in the general aspect with the required solemnity of the place, so that
comfort is conveyed and yet serious contemplation is awakened. He uses
nature and art to .excellent purpose. It was in this portion of the cemetery
where recently a monument was erected to the murdered millionaire A. J.
Snell, an obelisk of course, hewn out of blue Barry Granite, about 50 feet
high and costing $12,000.
Of the other monuments in which Rosehill abounds, we will mention only
a few of the most costly and largest. The granite obelisk not long since erected
to the memory of "Long" John Wentworth, towers considerably above all the
others, as Mr. Wentworth himself was during his life time, "a head taller then
all the people." The stone shaft including the foundations rises to a height of
65 ft. and is made of Hallowell granite. As we learn from Mr. Chadband,
the Assistant Superintendent of the ground?, the Wentworth obelisk has
cost $38,000, exclusive of $10,000 expended for and on the lot, on which are
planted fifty trees. Nearly $50,000 for a burial lot and a stone monument
not a cent for benevolent purposes 1 Not by far the most desirable
memorial.
The monument to the Volunteer Fire Brigade is a high marble column,
crowned by a single figure, representing a fireman on the look-out. Above
the foundation which shows representations from the life of firemen on duty
upon its four sides, a fire-hose hewn out of marble is wound around the pillar.
The corners of the pedestal represent hydrants and the circular patch of
lawn in the midst of which the monument stands and which is surrounded
by a low stone wall, is adorned with a number of allegorical figures and
with flowers.
Not far from this spot is the Soldiers' Monument, a high obelisk, on
which stands the stonecarved figure of a soldier of the late civil war. Th&
bas-reliefs on the sides of the pedestal represent the four military divisions:
Cavalry, Artillery, Infantry, and the Navy. In front is the inscription:
"Our Heroes." On the lawn spreading from the monument is a circle, the
Coat of Arms of the United States appears in the bright and living colors of
flowers. This monument is opposite the entrance, and east of it on the other
side of the carriage road we behold the monument of "Battery A." This
consists of a cannon hewn out of stone, covered by the Starry Flag, alongside
of it is a pyramid of cannon balls of stone. At the foot appear the names of
the fallen members of the battery and those of the battles in which the latter
have taken a part. Opposite to this, on the south-east corner of the intersect-
ing carriage roads, we have the stone monument of "Battery .5," representing
a mortar upon a stone foundation.
Directly east of these Veteran Monuments are two large square plats of
lawn, in which 230 Union soldiers are buried. The graves beneath, in which
these "defenders of the country" are sleeping, form long straight rows and
are marked by low head-stones, upon which are found the names of those
resting beneath and of their regiments and companies. Upon not a few
however this information is missing and in its place we read only the words:
U. S. Soldier. They belong to the large army of the unknown. Not far
from the eastern border of these soldier-graves, towards the castle-like gate,
towers the obelisk of Gen. Thomas E. G. Ransom.
The monuments thus far mentioned are the most expensive and some of
them may lay claim to artistic execution, but others would also call f'>rth
admiration, if they were found in a cemetery furnishing resting places to less
wealthy people.
As the lot holders in Rosehill Cemetery had become fearful that the
cemetery may, after the lots therein shall have been sold, come to be neglected
and l^ft without care; therefore, to prevent the possibility of such results, the
Rosehill Cemetery Company proposed and adopted the following amendments
to its charter:
Rosehill. Hon. John Wentworth's Monument.
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SEC. 1. "Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented
in the General Assembly, that there shall be set apart and kept, to be reserved
aud expended as hereinafter provided, the sura of ten per centum, or one-
tenth part of all the proceeds hereafter to be received from the sale of lots
by the Rosehill Cemetery Company, incorporated by that name by an Act
approved February 11, 1859, until the sum so reserved and set apart shall
amount to one hundred thousand dollars.
SEC. 2. That the aforesaid sum of one hundred thousand dollars shall be
kept and preserved as a fund, for all time to come,- for the preserving, main-
taining and ornamenting the grounds, lots, walks, shrubbery, memorials,
boundaries, structures, and all other things in and about said cemetery and
belonging to said corporation, so that the purpose and intention thereof shall
be carried out, and so that said grounds shall be and continue as cemetery
grounds forever.
SEC. 3. That the said corporation, by its proper officers, shall pay over
the said ten per cent, of all sales of lots, from time to time, and as often as they
shall be thereunto required, to three Trustees, who are hereby constituted the
" Board of Trustees of the Rosehill Cemetery," who shall be owners of lots
in said Rosehill Cemetery, and who shall be appointed as hereafter provided,
who shall keep the said fund in their possession until a sufficient amount has
accumulated to purchase such one of the securities hereinafter provided, as
shall be deemed best by the said Trustees, and as often as there shall be
sufficient accumulation for the purpose, as above provided. The said Trustees
shall invest the said fund in the bonds or securities of the City of Chicago,
the bonds or securities of the County of Cook, the bonds or securities of the
State of Illinois, or. the bonds or securities of the United States, as they shall
deem best; or if no such bonds can be had, then in other State securities of
the highest value, looking to their safety and the amount of interest to be
received therefrom. The said bonds or securities so purchased, shall be at
once deposited in the custody of the Mayor and Comptroller of the City of
Chicago, as a special deposit the said bonds having been first plainly en-
dorsed as belonging to the safety fund of the Rosehill Cemetery. The said
fund, when so invested, shall be kept and held for the uses and purposes
specified in the second section of this Act and no other."
Before we leave Rosehill it is only proper to state that the manage-
ment of this cemetery pays much attention to the floral embellishment of the
grounds, keeping a palmhouse and several hothouses. This gate, too, is
remarkable for its characteristic beauty. In this building are found tool-
houses in one wing and jn the other the office and a spacious and well
equipped chapel.
The board of managers consists of Hon. Henry W. Blodgett, H. F. Lewis,
Hon. Van H. Higgins, Hon. J. B. Brad well, and Wm. H. Turner. The officers
of the company are : Wm. H. Turner, Vice-President and Auditor, Hon.
Van H. Higgins, Treasurer, and Eugene C. Long, Secretary. George Scott is
the civil engineer and landscape architect, Walter Chadband the lot salesman,
and Thos. Wallis manager of the green-house department.
132
CALVARY CEMETERY.
The improved taste of late years in the choice of sites for cemeteries and
the methods adopted for their embellishment, together with the wide-felt, pub-
lic interest in them, and the laws which guard them from desecration, are cer-
tainly very aptly illustrated in Calvary. Here the fact is fully established,
that a well-appointed cemetery exerts a reflex influence upon the public taste.
Here a large part of the ground is laid out according to the principles of mod-
ern landscape art, trees and shrubs are plentiful and they especially have some
natural fitness or have become associated with the spot by the usages of the
past. Add to all of this the improvements made from year to year, slopes of
green velvety lawn, beautiful shade trees and other plants and costly mon-
uments of various designs.
In this cemetery people can learn by personal inspection how beautiful
nature is, both in her own simplicity, and when her charms are heightened by
the touch of art. And dont say, that such visits answer no purpose save to
gratify an idle curiosity! They suggest new ideas; they awaken purer tastes;
they show how the simplest piece of ground may be embellished by a little
skill and labor; how even the stern repulsiveness of the grave can be chastened;
and they send him back to his usual sphere of life determined to adorn his
own home, and to beautify the spot where he expects ere long to lay his ashes
too.
The fact is significant then and it is honorable to the character of our peo-
ple, that we are not wholly engrossed in the worship of mammon, neglectful
of the amenities and tender charities of life.
There are few who would not, if they could choose, choose such a peace
f ul place, as Calvary Cemetery, where the great companionship of dead gives
a sense of fellowship, sad but not painful. There is no jarring noise of life;
no hustle recalling the pain and travail of existence; not even the murmur of
the lake close by, or the low breathing of the distant city; its roar being soft-
ened here to a whisper.
In Calvary Cemetery we feel that we are face to face in a solemn spot
with the old enemy we are fronting the old, dreadful and incontrovertible
fact. The same in all other countries and with every race; we are here in the
very presence-chamber of King Dead.
Of course, here too, as is the case in nearly all of our cemeteries, private
property in the shape of costly monuments is made more conspicuous than
the sentiment of neighborly fellowship or human brotherhood. It is of course
proper for every man to express his own taste and judgment, and indeed,
speak his own individuality, in the structure and surroundings of his own
tomb and that of his family. Father Abraham took the lead in thus doing
and his children have followed him with considerable variety of adaptation,
as well as marked reverence for his preference for the rock sepulchre over the
Greek and Roman urn burial.
It is important for every family to put its own history upon its memorial
stone, with .as much impression of personal feeling as sober second thought
favo'rs and as distinct and just a record as will keep the family name alive for
coming generations. But here in this cemetery the aim is also noticeable, to
express love for the deceased in such a way that it speaks to every true heart
lifts private sorrow into universal fellowship. Some of the simplest expres-
sions on some of the marble slabs or upright memorials do this, with their
solemn prefix: "In Peace" and the name of the dead, and perhaps with a rude
figure of the Good Shepard with a lamb in his arm.
135
Quite a significance is given to this garden of the dead through its long
register of heroes, who have given their lives for their country. These sol-
diers' monuments, among them the one of the gallant and brave Col. Mulligan,
are neither too warlike nor fierce in their inscriptions and symbols. They ex-
press the fact, that all true heroism approaches the great sacrifice, and should nur-
ture the brave charity that calls all citizens to live under the same liberty and
law, and invites all souls into the same divine brotherhood.
The successful attempt has been made in Calvary, to combine as much
serious unity of purpose as possible with the variety of the grounds, woods
and water, as well as to guard against the too frequent mechanical monotony
of enclosures and monuments by favoring all judicious variety of vegetation,
landscape and stonework.
It is well to encourage the people in calling attention to the great beauties
of their cemeteries and to impress them with their need of a still higher order
of memorial art. We believe in nature and the human mind and in our right
and duty to know and love all that is good and true and beautiful ; this faith
we may declare in metal and in marble, in granite, flowers, trees and shrubs
upon our graves.
Calvary, as it is at present, forms a picture well worthy of a place in our
memory and thoughts. The natural dignity of the landscape, enhanced by
the graces of architecture and sculpture, leaves an impression not easily ef-
faced. '
Among the chief beauties of Calvary are the great number of forest-trees,
evergreens being intermingled with deciduous trees, which together show a
harmonizing of the mixture in summer, and in winter the evergreens are light-
ened and set off by the contrast of the shade-trees bereaved of their foliage,
for even the leafless branches of trees and shrubs afford an available element
of color.
Of the avenues the one leading from the entrance gate throngh the cem-
etery, where it diverges and branches out, is laid out in good taste and pos-
sesses great natural charms. All the drives and walks are kept scrupulously
clean and the shortcomings in this respect noticed in former years have been
supplanted by care and painstaking.
But as pointed out before, the skill and taste of the sculptor and architect
have been exerted in a remarkable manner in the construction of elaborate
monuments and mausoleums, and while greenhouse-flowers and plants embel-
lish numerous graves, the lawns beneath the leafy canopy of elms and ash
and maple are, during the warm season, sprinkled with a host of simple and
modest flowers of the meadow and forest. These and the fragrant flowers ar-
ranged by the florist or planted by lot-owners on the little hillocks are the
silent but expressive teachers of morality.
All in all this cemetery has undergone such a vast change in the last few
years, that it reflects honor upon the sensibility and taste of the management.
Nature has done a great deal for this judiciously located burial ground and
art has not been backward in contributing to its embellishment. It is impos-
sible, to visit this vast sanctuary of the dead without feeling a solemn yet
sweet and soothing emotion steal over the senses, as we wander over these hal-
lowed grounds interspersed so abundantly' with luxuriant flowering shrubs
and fragrant herbs, that seem to defy the most profane hand to pluck them.
Among the new improvements made during the last few years the new
greenhouses built are not only the most prominent, but they also fill a long-
felt want. They were erected on the west line of the cemetery, north of the
imposing entrance gate and are spacious and well adapted to their use. The
building consists of a propagating house, lf>0 feet long and 19 feet wide,
another house of equal dimensions serving also for the cultivation of flowers and
plants and a show-house, smaller in size, but filled with beautiful species of
palms, rubber plants, cactuses, banana-trees, ferns, etc. At the southern ex-
tremety of the plant-house, a commodious waiting room for ladies is provided
with which is connected the office of the florist, Mr. M. N. Angelsberg, an
adept in floriculture and floral decoration. The two greenhouses contain all
the most desirable and beautiful bedding-plants, such as bigonias, geraniums,
136
heliotrop, pinks, pansies, fuchsias, echeverias and countless numbers of other
plants, such as are generally used for carpet bedding.
The rose too is cultivated here, because no other flower forms such a beau-
tiful emblem of affection and tenderness. This shrub was early used for
grave-yard ornament by the Greeks and Romans, who frequently made it their
dying request that roses should be yearly planted and strewed upon their
graves. They conceived that this custom had a power over the dead. Anac-
reon declares that it
"Preserves the cold Inhumed clay,
And marks the vestige of decay."
How delightful to behold filial affection thus employed in decorating and
beautifying the spot where the ashes of a tender parent, a beloved child, sister
or brother repose! How pleasing to think, that even here we shall not be
forgotten that our memory will be cherished by those who once loved us,
and that the spot where we rest will be sometimes bedewed by the tears of
sorrowing love, and decorated by the hand of tenderness that flowers will
fringe the pathways leading to our lowly resting-place.
Among the memorials placed on family-lots there are quite a number that
can justly lay claim to high artistic value and refined taste. Besides the mon-
ument erected by friends and admirers of the gallant soldier Col. Mulligan,
those of Wm. M. Devine, Thomas Lynch, Chas. J. O'Neill, John D. Tully,
John Cudahy, Philip H. Murphy, Mrs. John Hogan, John McAvoy, W. B.
Snow, David Thornton, etc, are very conspicuous for their elegance. Then
there is the handsome and costly family vault erected by Richard M. Hooley,
and the P. J. Sexton mausoleum also makes a very fine appearance. Of great
artistic value is the monumental sarcophagus for J. A. Wolford and wife, a
masterpiece indeed of the sculptors' art.
Not less than 120,000 bodies have been laid to rest in this "Yard of Peace"
from the day its grounds were consecrated up to the present time, It is truly
a cosmopolitan burying ground, for with the exception of the Chinese perhaps
all nationalities are represented here by some one of their own people having
been permitted to enter these fields after reaching the end of life's journey.
Even an Indian Chief "Little Thunderer" is sleeping beneath the green sod
of Calvary,
Before Mount Olivet, the Catholic cemetery situated southwest of the city,
on the Grand Trunk railway, was established, the daily average of interments
at Calvary had reached 15, since then it has been reduced to 14.
The cemetery is located south of and adjoining the village of South Evan-
ston, ten miles north from the City Hall. It is the largest and oldest of the .
Roman Catholic cemeteries of this city and is fronting Sheridan Drive and
Lake Michigan. It is the favorite burying-place of the Irish Catholic Church-
es and was consecrated in 1859, although prior to this some of the bodies taken
from the consecrated ground in the old Chicago Cemetery were re-interred
here. The cemetery is a large one, containing 110 acres, which were purchased
in the year 1856, by Bishop O'Regan from John Devlin and John O'Leary.
Trains of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway (Milwaukee Division), and of
the Evanston Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad stop in
front of the handsome gate leading to Calvary.
The money derived from the sale of lots and single graves is turned over
to the Archbishop who, as head of the Catholic Churches of this city, manages
this fund in the interest of Calvary and Mount Olivet Cemeteries, where from
time to time costly improvements become necessary. A large part of this
money is kept in reserve for the purchase of additional territory for cemetery
purposes, for it is only a question of time and a comparatively short one too,
when Calvary will be completely filled with bodies and new fields will have
to be opened somewhere in the vicinity of the city for those, who during com-
ing years will throw off the ''mortal coil" and go- on their last journey: to the
grave.
The city office of Calvary Cemetery is on the second floor of the Reaper
Block, on the northwest corner of Clark and Washington streets. Mr. Thomas
Brenan, favorably known to most of our citizens as a gentlemen of unques-
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tioned honesty and integrity, who has served the public faithfully for a great
many years in various high public offices of honor and trust, is the General
Superintendent of Calvary and Mt. Olivet, and as such he acts as the financial
and trusted agent of the Archbishop. His able assistants are D. P. Kinsella,
who has charge of the cemetery management at Calvary, John Baynes, who
serves in a like capacity at Mt. Olivet, and Joseph McLaughlin, Mr. Brenan's
valuable adjunct at the main office.
140
ST. BONIFACE.
The first cemetery we encounter on our return from Rosehill ( along the
Greenbay Road or Clark Street) is St. Boniface, which, together with St.
Mary's, situated southwest of the city, and the Orphan Asylum at Rosehill,
is managed by a board of directors composed of members of the following
parishes: St. Michael's, St. Joseph's, St. Peter's, St. Antonius, St. Franciscus,
St. Boniface, St Paul's, St. Augustine, St. Alphons, St. Aloysius, St. Martin's,
St. Peter and Paul's, St. George's, the Holy Trinity, St. Mary's, St. Henry's
and St. Mathias.
The cemetery has an area of 36 acres, of which ten acres are not yet
divided into burial lots. In the new, eastern part of the cemetery, the spirit
of progress has plainly manifested itself, as the lots laid out there are arranged
in accordance with the park system in vogue now in most burial-grounds.
Thereby the difference between the older portion in the eastern half of the
grounds and this new part becomes very pronounced and at once noticeable
and there is nothing but praise among the owners of lots in the western portion
concerning the arrangements, the dispensing with fences or stone-enclosures
around flower-covered mounds. But in view of the fact, that the old part
with its regular squares and low stone-enclosures, is kept in excellent order
and receives the best of care on the part of the lot owners and the manage-
ment, there is not much to be said against this part either, for the rigid
straight lines are largely lost, sight of through the tasteful floral ornaments or
other emblems of mourning produced by nature or the handiwork of man.
This cemetery, upon which many, very many, of our best-known and
highly respected German citizens have been laid to rest in their graves, was
laid out in 1863 and consecrated the same year. On the 19th of October it
received its first silent inhabitant in the person of Marie Jung, a nine-days old
infant. To-day there are resting in the cool earth of St. Boniface, 26, 200 bodies,
to which are added on an average five each day.
From the stately portal, adjoining which are the offices of the Superin-
tendent and Secretary L. Biehl, a beautiful wide avenue flanked by stately
trees leads straight through the cemetery past the vault; beyond that it term-
inates in several winding driveways, in harmony with the park-like nature of
that part of the grounds.
St. Boniface cemetery differs from most other burial grounds, the public,
as well as the church cemeteries, in so far, that the surplus of the annual
receipts are expended for benevolent purposes, especially for maintaining the
orphanage at Rosehill, while the often large profits of the other cemeteries,
with hardly an exception, find their way into the pockets of single individuals
or the coffers of corporations.
Take for instance the year before last, in which there were buried in St. Boni-
face about 1,400 people and the total income amounted to $14,410.90. Of this
sum $8,511.72 were expended upon the cemetery, including $1,500 the direct-
ory paid towards the Soldiers-Monument of the Catholic Veteran Association,
leaving a surplus of $5,899.18.
This cemetery is rich in costly monuments, an indication that many of those
who ended their life's pilgrimage here, have left their families in very com-
fortable circumstsnces. The majority of the older monuments are of marble,
but those erected more recently are made of lasting granite, which can better
resist the elements, than marble and softer stone.
The Soldiers monument, unveiled and consecrated on Decoration Day a
few years ago, is a great ornament to the cemetery. The other monuments
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deserving special mention are those of Joseph Haunschild, Marie New, Anton
Schillo, John C. Roeder, Chr. Brick, Amelia C. Boyle, John Temple, Michael
Sieben, Chas. Dominick Miville, John Zender, Anton Detmer, F. Scholer,
Nicolas and Leo P. Leiendecker, Mich. Diversy, Henry Wischemeyer, John
Herting, J. Schoenewald, A. Hagemann, A. Baier, John B. Busch, A. Zulfer,
Anton Cremer, Bernard Miiller, Catharine Hechinger, J. Arnold, Albert Wag-
ner, the Pfeifer family, Marie Sledek, Peter Wagner, Felix Blatter, M. Coss
manh, F. Mayer, Louise Hesing, etc.
Of these the last named monument in the south-eastern portion of the cem-
etery ranks first in the choice of the subject as well as in the artistic execution
of the same. Certainly in no other are the characteristic virtues of the
deceased expressed so well symbolically and perpetuated as in this granite
statue of St. Elizabeth, erected to the memory of Mrs. Louise Hesing. It was
indeed a happy thought to decorate the grave of this noble woman, who knew
no greater joy than to do good and make happy the oppressed and needy,
with an almost life-like representation of the saint, whom we are wont to look
upon as the ideal of the purest charity.
The statue measures 7 feet 6 inches in height and represents the pious
landgravine of Thuringia, distributing bread to the poor with her outstretched
right hand. In the folds of her dress, which she holds with her left, are seen
the roses, into which the victuals she was currying to the poor of the City of
Eisenach, changed at the moment when her husband, the landgrave Ludwig,
forced open the basket in which she carried her charitable gifts from the castle.
The model for this statue was executed by Mr. F. Engelsmann, a talented young
German artist, and the statue itself, measuring with the base 9 feet 6 inches, was
made at the steam granite works of Burkhardt and Son, No. 138 Kingsbury
Street, Chicago. The monument is cut out of light-gray Westerley, ( R. I. )
granite, which, owing to its hardness and other desirable properties, is espec-
ially adapted to monuments. Upon the front of the base above the simple
inscription: Louise Hesing, is seen a bronze-medallion of the deceased, also the
work of Mr. Engelsmann.
The special merit of the statue lies in the mild and loving expression of the
face, in which are plainly reflected nobility of soul and kindness of heart. It
is scarcely necessary to say, that the figure bears also in every other part the
mark of high artistic ability. The grave of Mrs. Hesing is covered with a
thick mass of blooming evergreen.
The lot of Marie New is ornamented with figures representing a mother
and child, whilst the monument of Christian Brick is in the shape of a Christ-
chapel. Upon the foundation supporting the monument on the grave of Amelia
C. Boyle a female figure is represented resting upon a cross, symbolizing
mourning. The monument of John Zender consists of a pyramid of rocks
upon which stands Jesus with the Cross. Very expressive is the monument
on the grave of F. Scholer. It represents a block of stone with cross and
anchor, which latter is fastened with a rope cut out of the rock to the ( stone )
trunk of a tree rising in the middle. The tall marble monument of John Her-
ting is crowned by the life-size figure of St. Boniface. Many other monuments
could be mentioned if the space would permit, but it may here be mentioned,
that besides the statue of St. Elizabeth Mr. Burkhardt has made many monu-
ments for St. Boniface and other cemeteries, which are notable for their origin-
ality and artistic value and are not copies of models too frequently copied.
Among others furnished by him, the Wacker monument at Graceland is
especially conspicuous.
We may conclude this article with the translation of two lines we have
found upon a grave-stone in the old portion of St. Boniface:
" Thee, also, death will call away,
Thou, too, wilt in thy grave decay."
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WUNDER'S CHURCH-YARD.
JEWISH CEMETERIES.
The greatest difficulties managers of burial places meet with, are en-
countered by German churches, who have established their own cemeteries. In
the German mind the resting-places of the dead are inseparately connected
with their religious life and church associations. Their cemeteries are conse-
crated spots, " church-yards," " fields of peace," "God's acres." They do not
like to be buried outside of these, and therefore all German congregations aim
to have l^heir own burying ground. But they generally consist of working
people, who hardly ever have much beyond their needs. It is therefore not an
easy thing for them to accumulate enough wealth, wherewith to purchase a
piece of ground sufficiently large to receive their dead during generations, and
it is equally difficult for them to keep it in order, as that requires a constant
outlay of money; neither can they ask for their lots any such sums as are paid
in the larger cemeteries. The consequences are, that the graves have to be
used over and over again and have to be largely left to themselves or to the
care of the relatives of the interred.
Though the congregations who bury their dead in Wunder's cemetery are
doing their very best to overcome these difficulties, the aforementioned evils
are nevertheless .sadly noticeable. There are portions of it, however, which are
well kept and are in every way in keeping with the solemnity of the place. A
decided step towards a thorough improvement of the cemetery is a recent reso-
lution of the management, not to permit any more interments in single graves,
but only in family lots. That, if anything, will insure a better state of things.
The cemetery is situated but a few feet south of Graceland and was con-
secrated in the beginning of the fifties. How many were buried there in the
course or the last forty years, cannot be determined, owing to the repeated use
of the same graves. The family lots are chiefly found in the front part of
this German necropolis and as a rule show loving care. Upon many of them
are seen fine monuments, some of which have artistic value. A very pleasing
feature are the inscriptions upon these monuments, tomb-stones and even the
plain wood crosses adorning the graves of the poorer of those sleeping there,
which are mainly of a religious character. Some also tell a sad story, as the
inscription on the obelisk just opposite the gate does, which runs in German:
"Wanderer, stand still! Here rests in God a true husband and father, who had to
lose his life in his calling as fireman," and in English: "John Streming, killed
at a fire on South Water Street, June 8th, 1865, while on Duty."
On the more beautiful of the monuments the following names are inscribed:
Charlotte Becker, John Janke, Family Fiedler, William Hallermann, C. Spren-
gel, A. Drechsler, Ludwig Sommer, Friedrich Hoermann, Albert T. Haeberle,
Amanda Hallermann, Conrad Oberg, F. Schramm, Heinrich Junker, Dora
Lasman, Henry Schultz. Wm. Rohn, L. Hiklenbeutel, John G. Dohl, and
others.
Just on the other side of the fence, south of Wuuder's Church Yard, is a
Jewish cemetery, which presents a very pleasing appearance. Everything
there is kept in the best of order. The signs above the gate show that several
congregations bury their dead in these grounds. One sign reads: Chebra
Gemilothe Chassadim Ubikor Cholim, and another: "Hebrew Benevolent
Society," besides these also the " Bnai Sholem" congregation buries its dead
in this place.
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The cemetery contains five acres of land. The family lots as well as most
of the single graves are not only well-kept, but show tender care. The roads
and paths also are well cared for by the attendant, a Swede named P. K. Nei-
glick, and he being a gardener, the place everywhere shows his skill and good
taste. Mr. Neiglick is of the Christian faith, but attends to his duties in the
Jewish burial place with as much reverence as a Jew could do. He receives
no regular salary for his services, but contents himself with his income from
the sale of flowers and plants for decorating purposes and from the care of
graves.
In this cemetery about 2000 people are buried, of whom not a few were
laid to rest here at the expense of Societies. There is no lack of handsome
monuments. The inscriptions on some of them testify to the tendency on the
part of many Jewish people to anglicise and corrupt their honest and generally
very pretty German names, in such a degree that they hardly can be recog-
nized in their new English dress.
Among the monuments which deserve to be specially mentioned there are
those of: Morris Rosenfeld, Herman Seaman, Isaac Goldstein, Isaac Waitzel,
Moses Ruhl, M. M. Spiegel. H. L. Marks, Henry Abrahams, Marcus Jampolis.
David Adams, Heiman Solomon, Jacob Pieser, P. Goldstein, Shrimski, Samuel
Goldmann, etc.
The cemetery was opened in the summer of 1854 and the body of Ida Kohn,
who was buried there on August 6th of that year, was the first one laid to rest
there.
Further south on Clark Street, at the southwest corner of Belmont Ave-
nue, formerly was situated the cemetery of the Anshe Mayrive congregation.
The same contained about four acres, and was laid out in 1856. But the con-
gregation recently had another cemetery surveyed, of which it now has taken
possession. It is located in Jefferson in the neighborhood of the Cook County
Poor House, and contains 20 acres, five times the territory of the old one. The
remains of those buried in the old grounds together with a number of the
monuments have all been transferred to the new cemetery, The number of
bodies that had been interred in the old grounds was 985. Here too, formerly
a number of monuments were standing, which cost a great deal of money and
at the same time furnishes further proof of the corruption of names. On one
appeared the name of Falk Austrian, whilst along side of it stood an older
tomb-stone for which the good German name of Oesterreicfier had evidently
been still considered good enough; the inscription there read: "Malla, wife of
Abraham Oesterreicher."
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OAKWOODS CEMETERY.
This beautiful cemetery stands in the front rank, as one of the handsomest
of Chicago's burial grounds. It is located south of 67th St. between Cottage
Grove Ave. and the I. C. R. R. track. The distance from the business centre
is about seven miles. It is reached by the "Hyde Park" cable trains, and by
the I. C. and Pittsburgh & Ft. Wayne R. R's. It is also easily accessible by
several convenient carriage drives. There are numerous dwellings in the im-
mediate vicinity of this cemetery, nevertheless, Oakwoods is protected from
future interference, and guaranteed absolute permanency by a special charter
of the legislature.
In drawing the plan for the grounds, the Association was fortunate in
securing the services of the late Mr. Adolph Strauch, Superintendent of Spring
Grove Cemetery, at Cincinnati, who as a landscape gardener and Superintend-
ent of cemeteries, probably had no equal. Before work was commenced in
1864, he visited and made a thorough examination of the land, and assured the
Association that it was well adapted for the purpose it was designed for.
Then, with a detailed survey, showing the surface elevation, he drafted the
plan now presented to the public, designating the lowest land for artificial
lakes, and the higher to be made still higher, and formed into beautiful mounds
with the earth taken from the lakes.
The avenues are laid out in gentle curves and on an established grade.
Perfect drainage of the surveyed portion is secured by judicious grading" The
land is of a gravelly, sa'ndy nature, the kind best suited for sepulture, and is
covered by a good soil of considerable depth, ensuring a vigorous growth of
grass, trees, shrubbery and flowers.
Like other cemeteries that can lay claim to landscape beauties, Oakwoods
is devoid of fences and enclosures that often surround burial lots; it is arranged
on the lawn system, by which the natural charm of the scenery is sustained.
It is ornamented and kept like a park, at the same time being invested with
all the sacredness and solemnity befitting a burial place for the dead.
Oakwoods comprises a territory of 184 acres, of which a little less than
half is now in use. The first burial took place on May 20th, 1865. It is now
the silent abode of the mortal remains of nearly 20,000 former inhabitants of
this city. The cemetery company has recently erected a fine building at an
expenditure of $10,000. It contains the office, store-room, etc. Also a magni-
ficent entrance, consisting of a number of highly-polished granite shafts, ar-
ranged in the most presentable manner, forming a new departure in the archi-
tecture of cemetery gateways. The design for this really handsome gateway
and entrance was furnished by Mr. Marcus A. Farwell, the popular President
of the Association, and it does him great credit.
The charming residence of director H. H. Sheppard is situated near the
main entrance. Close to this are the large green-houses, of which there are
not less than ten; the dimensions of each being 100 ft. long and 20 ft. wide.
They are under the supervision of the skilful head gardener, Alexander Reed.
All varieties of rare flowers are cultivated here, and used in the ornamentation
of the graves, and for other purposes. The company derives a handsome rev-
enue from the sale of flowers and plants alone. A separate office is used, and
a force of clerks employed, to supply the demands of patrons.
The water-works are near to this, which supply about 5 miles of water
pipes. The water works system is entirely independent of any outside ap-
pliance. There are five artificial lakes of considerable size, the banks of which
are sloping lawns to the waters edge.
In Oakwoods there are many costly monuments and mausoleums, and a
spacious vault connected with a chapel building. The vault has a capacity
for holding 500 bodies, and is built in the latest and most approved style.
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Upon entering, the first conspicous monument that meets the eye is that
of Conrad Seipp, a granite obelisk with urn attached. The following is a par-
tial list of the more costly monuments, to be found in this cemetery. Those
of Wm. H. Newman, Jos. E. C. Zeller, Wm. H. Harper, Mead Mason, John
N. Gage, Van Bokellen, Lena Robinson, S. M. T. Turner, Israel Holmes,
Sam. R. Noe, Alphonso Goodrich, Wm. S. Hancock, F. K. Dunn, Frank
Drake, Cyrus E. Cole, Harry W. Phillips, Gabriel Steiger, L. G. Gall, Henry
Hoyt, Dan'l Goodman, Henry A. Spence, Frank Van Houtin, David Burcky,
Nellie W. Ullmann, Giesbert Pottgieser, F. Kublank, Louise Lehrkamp,
F. Sorgenfrei, George Kress, August Keller, J. Werkmeister, E. T. Wadlow,
C. ^jieliske, C. F. Kauffert, August Geilfuss, A. J. W. Jahncke, Emma
W. Jacob, Paul Kleiner, Wm. Hickling, Paul Cornell, Chas. Stein,
Ben Carver, Burton C. Cook, Christian Schmidt, Chas. Tessmann, Peter Abt,
Henry Apple, Henry G. Oehmich, John H. McAvoy, Robert Cunningham,
Angus, James Campbell, H. H. Cooley, Williams, W. H. Schimpfermann,
H. Guth, B. Artz, Conrad Stuckart and Catharine Friesleben. The monument
of Oale Cramer, who lost his life July 27, 1887, in a collision near York, Ind.,
consists of a shattered locomotive of stone. The soldiers' monument was
erected by one of the directors of the Chicago Soldiers' Home. The statue
represents a private soldier with his rifle, and is finished in stone; the pedestal
consists of marble. In the foreground there are four cannons guarding the
graves of about 70 veterans.
The remains of over 5,000 Confederate soldiers, who died at Camp Doug-
las, (a war-prison, situated on Cottage Grove Avenue during the late war),
are interred here in a thicket of elms. The local society of confederate soldiers,
have in contemplation the erection of a suitable monument to the memory of
their departed comrades. Jeff. Davis himself, in his lifetime, evinced great
interest in the erection of this memorial. Oakwoods contains also two small
Jewish cemeteries of the congregations of Beth Hamedrash, and Ohoveh She-
mil, respectively one acre and one half acre in dimensions.
That this cemetery can never be diverted from its present use and purpose
is fully guaranteed in the following section of the charter: "And no road,
street, alley or thoroughfare shall be laid out or opened through their said
grounds, or any part thereof, without the consent of the directors; nor shall
any corporation now existing, or hereafter created, be authorized to take, hold
or possess any portion of said cemetery by condemnation, without such con-
sent." Oakwoods is one of the very few cemeteries in Cook County that is
organized under a special charter granted by the Legislature, which protects
it from interference, and guarantees its absolute permanency. No cemetery or-
ganized since the adoption of the present State Constitution, which took effect
in 1870, has or can obtain a special cnarter. Under the present laws all new
cemeteries are liable to be ruined by common roads, streets and railroads being
forced through them. They have no protection like those organized under the
old special charters. This cemetery has every security that the State of Illi-
nois, through its Legislature, can confer. Oakwoods Cemetery is indeed a
rural cemetery, and the Original Rural Cemetery of Chicago, ornamented and
kept like a highly cultivated park, while at the same time it is invested with all
the sacredness pertaining to a burial place for the dead. The Association
makes the improvements, grades the lots, excavates the lakes, and plants orna-
mental trees. The prices of lots vary from fifty cents to one dollar per square
foot, according to location. The price at present for a single grave for an
adult is ten dollars; for children, six to eight dollars.
The funeral trains by the Illinois Central Railroad leaving the city at 2
and 3 p. M. go to the cemetery gate. The Pittsburgh & Fort Wayne Railroad
suburban trains also stop at Cottage Grove Avenue, near the south-west corner
of the grounds. There are good carriage roads from the City through Washing-
ton Park and Cottage. Grove Avenue; also by 63rd, South Park Avenue and
67th Street.
The officers of the company are: Marcus A. Farwell, President; James
McKindley, Vice President; W. C. I). Grannis, Treasurer; George M. Bogue,
Secretary, and J. II. Shepard, Superintendent.
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ST. MARIA. MT. GREENWOOD.
Of the four cemeteries situated beyond the southwestern limits of file
City: St. Maria, Mt. Greenwood, Mt. Olivet and Mt. Hope, the first named
lies nearest to the City and is the one where the funeral trains of the Grand
Trunk Railroad coming from the city make their first stop.
ST. MARIA CEMETERY
is a German Catholic burying ground, which was consecrated on May 13, 1888,
by Archbishop Feehan in the presence of a large concourse of people. Its
northern boundary line is formed by Eighty -seventh street; the cemetery con-
tains one hundred and two acres of ground, which lie on the western slope of
Washington heights at an elevation of fifty-five feet above the level of Lake
Michigan and of from sixteen to twenty feet above the level of the surround-
ing prairie-land.
The German Catholics of the South and Southwest Sides have long felt
the need of a burying ground somewhere near the southern limits of Chicago,
where those of their people, who died in the Catholic faith, could find a final
resting place, but not until the year 1887 had nearly passed was there an
earnest effort made in this direction. Then it was that through the generosity
of Heinrich Wischemeyer and his wffe Maria, the Association which has also con-
trol and the management of St. Boniface, the German Catholic cemetery on
the North Side, was presented with sixty acres of the land which now forms
St. Maria Cemetery, under the condition that the profits derived from the sale
of lots and single graves be turned over to the Orphan Asylum at Rosehill,
which together with the two cemeteries is managed by a directory, chosen
from the different German Catholic congregations of Chicago. After the sixty
acres donated by Mr. and Mrs. Wischemeyer had been laid out and embel-
lished,forty-two acres more of adjoining land was purchased at a very low figure.
Opposite the entrance gate on Eighty-seventh Street the management has
erected a pretty depot-building in Swiss "cottage-style. When the grounds
passed into the possession of the association, the entire area showed neither
tree nor shrub; to-day more than four thousand shade -trees of healthy growth
are planted along the winding drives and foot-paths and scattered in pictur-
esque groups all over the place, which at no distant day will equal any of the
older cemeteries in point of landscape and general arrangement. The modern
lawn-system has found favor here from the start and when the drives were
mapped out, they were so arranged as to form a connecting system of carriage
roads throughout the grounds. The different links of this chain of driveways
have been given names such as: St. Anthony. St. Henry. St. Peter, St. Fran-
cis, St. Paul, St. George, St. Augustin, St. Martin, St. Ferdinand, St. Aloy-
sius Avenue. At a central point where all the roads converge, a monument
has been erected to the memory of Mr. and Mrs. Wischemeyer, It is hewn
out of marble and is the gift of the Cemetery Association, who desired to ex-
press, in this manner its gratitude for the liberal donation of land by the hon-
ored couple. Not far from this monument, the receiving vault, a massive and
spacious structure, arrests the attention of the visitor. It has room for four
hundred coffins and is covered by a blue slate roof, beneath which two circular
colored glass-windows admit the light of day to the interior. From here St.
John's Avenue leads to the highest point of the cemetery, where we also find
the dwelling of the sexton, who from his abode can overlook the entire terri-
tory under his immediate control.
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At the suggestion of Rev. Peter Fischer, of St. Anthony's Church, who
was the first president of the board of management, a novelty has been intro-
duced in this cemetery, the like of which probably will not be met with in
any other Catholic Cemetery. One of the choicest portions of the grounds,
section A, has been set aside for the burial of families of mixed religion, so
that the protestant wife of a catholic husband laid to rest here can be interred
after her death by the side of her spouse and vice- versa.
Besides the Wischemeyer Memorial, there are several more very hand-
some monuments in this "God's Field," of which may be mentioned those of
Michael Reidi of Englewood. Anton Tennie, August Bauer, Johann Ferber,
Isabella Vaesgen (of Blue Island), John Wessendorf (Washington Heights),
Theresa Gottsellig, Peter Thomas, etc. In wandering over that sacred ground
and gazing upon the monuments soaring high in panegyric of the wealthy
dead and upon the humble tombstones of those less favored when pilgrims of
this world, now made equal though by the impartial hand of Death, we feel the
belief grow within us, that there are sermons indeed which we may gather
from Stones, and we also are fully convinced from what we see here, there
and everywhere, that this German "Friedhof" will at some day near at hand,
be not only one of the most interesting, but also one of the largest German Cath-
olic cemeteries of this country.
MOUNT GREENWOOD CEMETERY.
This well known and beautiful cemetery is found three and a half miles
south of St. Maria's on the Grand Trunk Railroad. It was opened to the pub-
lic in 1879, and is situated upon the crest of Washington Heights and in the
midst of a rolling country well covered with timber trees. Mt. Greenwood
occupies the highest point of the chain of hills, which here rise to an elevation
of seventy feet above the level of Lake Michigan. It contains eighty acres of
land, of whjch no more than eighteen or twenty are used for purposes of sep-
ulture. Here too the lawn-system is in full operation and was adopted in the
beginning, so that Mt. Greenwood comes under the head of Park Cemeteries.
The winding, serpentine drives are mostly macadamized and kept in excellent
repair. The first body was buried here April 28, 1880, and since then more
than three thousand people, who had ended life's pilgrimage, were interred
under the mighty oaks that stand sentinel within the inclosures of Mt. Green-
wood. Much importance is placed here on the propagation of plants for or-
namenting graves and lawns and the lovely and tasteful beds of flowers that in
summer meet the eye everywhere, give sufficient evidence of the earnest aim
of the management, to make this Burial Park another point of interest for
friends and strangers, for in point of decoration it will take rank with many
ornate parks and gardens.
The entrance is situated on lllth Street, east of the railroad station, and
is flanked on the righthand side by the cemetery office, constructed nearly alto-
gether out of the limbs and bark of trees, and over all climbing plants have
woven an emerald awning. The cultivation of plants and flowers is carried
on within three roomy green-houses which have a length of one hundred feet
each. The public vault, situated in close proximity to the plant houses, has a
capacity for holding five hundred coffins; tnere are many elegant and costly
monuments, of which a few only may be mentioned. The one most prominent
and conspicuous among them is the obelisk of the dead philantropist, Karl
Uhlich; it towers into the air to a height of thirty-three feet and is crowned
by a female figure, symbolizing Hope. The wife of Uhlich, four of their chil-
dren, and Henry Klein, an old and trusted friend of the Uhlich family, are all
buried in the shadow of the obelisk. Of the other monuments, those of Her-
man Vanderbelt, Mary Adelheid Brockway, Wm. Morgan, (Blue Island), N. B.
Rexford, Benjamin Kayler (the original owner of the land), the "Elks,"
Edgar Johnson Goodspeed, Walter Pride Cottle, etc, have great artistic merit.
MT. OLIVET.
This Catholic cemetery is situated directly opposite the entrance to Mt.
Greenwood, south of One hundreth and eleventh street, from where it extends
as far as One hundred and fifteenth street. Like Mt. Greenwood and Mt.
Hope it is located on high and hilly ground and therefore even in the wettest
season the ground remains dry and is therefore all the more suitable for the
purpose it is intended for. This cemetery with its abundance of stately oaks
lias more the resemblance of a sylvan grove than of a city of the dead. It
contains eighty acres, of which about half are in use. The dedication of this
beautiful "Gods' Acre" took place June 28th, 1885, and since that time -over
4000 bodies have been laid to rest the'-e.
Mt. Olivet is under the same management as Calvary Cemetery. The
land was purchased in September, 1884, from the late Judge Beckwith, and
June 17th, of the following year the first burial took place there. The gen-
eral appearance of Mt. Olivet gives evidence of the fact, that an earnest and
successful effort is made to keep the grounds in good trim, and to permit noth-
ing which might prove an eyesore or challenge unfavorable criticism.
Among the monuments seen here and there the one erected by the Irish
Nationalists is the most conspicuous; it is a granite obelisk thirteen feet high.
Other memorials worthy of mention are those of Abraham Raimburg, James
Shay, John Flannigan, Carl Miller, Martin Hogan, William Pauly, P. C. Mc-
Donald, etc.
This cemetery is provided with a water-windmill and other facilities for
assisting nature in its work of beautifying this forest-like burial ground, by
which the latter admirably succeeds in assuming the character of a cheerful
park and in losing more and more those features that gave to it at first a
gloomy and dismal appearance.
The establishment of Mt. Olivet has proven a great convenience for the
Catholics residing in the extreme southern parts of our city, who in former
times were compelled to travel from 15 to 20 miles each way when accomp-
anying a deceased relative or friend way out north to. Calvary Cemetery.
It is the intention of the management to build a large receiving-vault at
Mt. Olivet in the near future, and from what we have observed in Calvary, the
twin-brother of Mt. Olivet, the latter will certainly in due time be still more
embellished and improved and then it will be one of the most attractive park-
cemeteries of our city.
Koseliill. Monument of Prof. Gumming Cherry.
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MOUNT HOPE.
This beautiful Park Cemetery is situated on that ridge of wooded hills,
southwest of the city, commonly known as Washington Heights, and directly
west of, and adjoining Morgan Park. This location was decided upon after
a careful survey of all the available property for such purposes, in Cook
County, south and west of the city. It is emphatically the best selection
that could have been made. It consists of three hundred acres in a compact
body. The association has a capital of $600,000.00, and for five years has
had a large force of men working under the direction of the best obtainable
engineers and landscape gardeners, in bringing this immense property to a
state of perfection.
No money has been spared in making this cemetery, what its founders
intend it shall be the model cemetery of the country. They have erected
a line stone chapel, depot, waiting rooms and office, costing about f 20,000.
The public vault is the most complete of any in the west, and contains one
hundred and sixty separate iron compartments. The splendid growth of
native oaks, which cover the hills, has been interplanted by an immense
number of all varieties of ornamental trees and shrubs. The finely paved
roads that traverse the grounds in all directions, and wind among the hills,
produce a most pleasing and finished effect. The lake, the flowers, the turf;
all combine to make it an ornamental park, in the truest sense of the word.
An abundant supply of pure water for all purposes is furnished from an
artesian well. Steam pumping works distribute this over the cemetery,
through a system of iron pipes. Although it lies 100 feet above the level of
Lake Michigan and the soil is of the most suitable character for cemetery pur-
poses yet that there might be no possible doubt as to its freedom from water
these natural advantages have been supplemented by an elaborate system
of surface and under drainage. The beauty of the cemetery is marvelous.
No pen picture can do it justice. It must be seen to be appreciated.
When this cemetery was laid out and beautified, Chicago had another
park added to those which have already made her world-famous. But it
differs from the pleasure grounds in which the toiling thousands take their
rest every Sunday in the summer; for in the new garden where art and nature
vie with each other in creating a scene of loveliness, every day will be a Sab-
bath and the beauty will be consecrated not to the living but to the dead.
The enterprise which has selected these grounds on Washington Heights
aimed to give to a great city another park cemetery, which is worthy of its
greatness and represents in its highest developement the advanced taste
which the present century has brought to bear upon the resting place of the
dead. Not only is the civilization of a people expressed in the avenues
of palatial homes and in the imposing edifices of commerce, but also in
the condition of their places of sepulture. The tomb is to the future
the witness of the present ; it carries to posterity the records of a genera-
tion's ideals, whether they be high or low, debased or noble. In the monu-
ments of the antique world we read the history of her tyranny, of her
superstition, of her moments of enfranchisement and of her years of
darkness ; and the enlightenment of this age the enlightenment of wide-
spread education, charity and freedom will not be less truly mirrored in
the cemeteries which we establish and adorn and which we leave for the
edification of posterity. It would be strange if the progress of knowledge,
which has done so much for the material comforts of life and the beauti-
fying of homes, did not also rob death of some of its distressing associa-
tions and make the last of all homes more endurable to man's contem-
160
plation. Science has not been idle in this respect. Seconded by the growing-
sense of human refinement, she has in the last few years removed the dis-
agreeable features remaining from the practices of the past, and has invested
places of interment with suggestions of beauty that are pleasing to the
senses and elevating to the soul. The old style of graveyard, with its rectan-
gular form, its huddled hillocks which seem to cry out against the parsimony
of earth in not affording ample resting place to her children, and in its dis-
cordant and often distasteful and memorial symbols, is happily now a thing of
the past, and one that can never be recalled. Hereafter the parks in which
the living take their pleasure shall not be more enchanting than those where
peace guards the pillow of rest. It must be said that Chicago is not first
among the cities in the idea of an ornamental cemetery, though she is easily
first in her parks and boulevards and her avenues of architectural splendor.
The promoters of park cemeteries have to fight some lingering prejudices
in the minds of people who look with apprehension upon any departure from
custom ; but these prejudices disappear when it is made plain that the new
departure is in the interest both of economy and of estheticism. How much
better is it, for instance, that the money spent upon stone copings and iron
railings (barriers that imply the idea that some sort of outrage might be pos-
sible) were devoted instead to raising a monument of enduring qualities and
of truly artistic design. Experience has shown that railings and copings in-
variably fall into disorder through exposure to the severe temperature, and
the result is that every old fashioned cemetery has upon its hands constantly
accumulating heaps of worthless stone and metal . Under the park plan, on
the contrary, large and roomy lots may be utilized, where, instead of incum-
brances in the shape of trivialities, one imposing shaft will serve as a family
monument, and where the sloping, grassy borders will give an effect im-
measurably more pleasing than that of forbidding hedges or of iron fences.
" The grave," says Washington Irving, " should be surrounded .with
everything that may insure tenderness and veneration. Can this be done by
having burial lots enclosed with stone posts, iron bars and chains, the sight of
which is repulsive in the extreme, as it conveys the idea of rudeness and con-
finement?"
To everyone who is engaged in the busy struggle of existence it is now
consoling to know that his last resting place shall be made amidst scenes that
will charm rather than distress the beholder, and that will induce the visitor
to linger and feel half-loth to return to the busy haunts of men. The idea is
at once so tender and universal that it is not surprising that America's most
Horatian poet William CuUen Bryant should have given it the most ex-
quisite expression:
I know, I know I Should not see
The season's glorious show ;
Nor would its brightness, shine for me
Nor its wild music flow ;
But if around my place of sleep
The friends I love should come to weep,
They might not haste to go.
Soft airs and song and light and bloom
Should keep them lingering by my tomb.
These to their softened hearts should bear
The thoughts of what has been,
And speak of one who cannot share
The gladness of the scene.
Whose part in all the pomp that fills
The circuit of the summer hills
Is that his grave is green.
And deeply would their hearts rejoice
To hear again his living voice.
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163
FOREST HOME.
This cemetery is situated between West Madison and West Twelfth Sts.,
about four and one half miles west of the present City Limits, and embraces
the most beautiful part of the once celebrated Haase's Park, comprising nearly
one hundred acres of land. These grounds have gained a wide reputation for
the beauty of their natural scenery; in fact their equal in that respect can not
be found around Chicago. No spot could be more advantageously situated
than the location of FOREST HOME, it being fifty-six feet above the level of
Lake Michigan and the crown of the water-shed between the Atlantic and the
Gulf. The water running from the roof of a house on the grounds on one side
finds the St. Lawrence, while the drops that fall on the opposite side go to
the Mississippi.
Comparatively few people in Chicago know what beautiful glimpses of
Nature in her restful moods lie within easy reach of the city. The wheelmen
are finding some of them, and every Sunday numbers of bicycles may be seen
on the way west to the woods that border the Desplaines river. Artists too
have learned of these spots, and views on the Desplaines are now to be seen at
our art expositions both in oil and water colors. Years before the white man
had come into this Western country the Indians had perceived the beauties of
the natural park that borders the river between Harrison and Twelfth Streets,
and had consecrated it to burials, and to-day there still remains undisturbed
an Indian mound the final record of a departed race. The Indian always
selected for his camp and his burial Nature's choicest spots, and civilization
has, in this place at least, confirmed his judgment and renewed the consecra-
tion the limits of the Indian park now marking the boundaries of the most
beautiful cemetery about Chicago. The prodigality of Nature in this beauti-
ful spot seems to have inspired the management of the FOREST HOME CEME-
TERY with a love of the beautiful. All improvements must be made on one
general plan, and it is the aim to add to the natural beauties instead of dis-
pelling them. "How appalling," says an eminent writer upon this subject,
"are the acres of square plats and stone and iron inclosures that thrust the
notion of property into your face at every turn, and at once break up the ex-
pression of the landscape and the thought that becomes the resting place of
the dead." A glance at either of the views in FOREST HOME shows that in
this resting place no such feeling comes to friend or stranger Nature's beauties
are unbroken. The visitor feels that his sympathy is not shut out by iron or
stone, but that here private sorrow is lifted into universal fellowship. The
"lawn system" adopted by the management is the system forshadowed in the
article quoted from.
Notwithstanding its natural wildness and rural beauty, it is the most
accessible of Chicago cemeteries. The Wisconsin Central and the electric cars
on Madison Street land passengers almost at the gates of FOREST HOME. It is
also connected with the city by well-kept roads on Madison and Twenty-second
Sts. and Riverside Boulevard. A natural elevation in one part of the grounds lias
been taken advantage of by the management to erect a new vault for tempo-
rary purposes. It has an iron and glass roof just even with the surface of the
ground, and runs back into the mound, leaving only the front in view, which
opens upon a roadway extending along the face of the mound. A continuation
of this elevation gives an opportunity for those preferring this manner of sep-
ulture, to build and own private vaults, which can be entered from the drive.
164
Among the names of those who have secured resting places for their dead
there are many of the prominent residents of our city and western suburbs.
Handsome monuments mark the grave of Philander Smith, for many years a
leading citizen of Oak Park; similar memorials adorn the beautiful lots of
Edward G. Uihlein, a resident of Chicago, of H. W. Austin, of C. H. Robin-
son, and of S. E. Hurlbut, Joseph Kettlestrings and Reuben Whaples, who
were the first settlers of Oak Park, are buried here; and lots belonging to
Clarence Cross, S. E. Hurlbut, George Eckart, E. H. Pitkin, J. H. Hurlbut
and many others are pointed out.
Forest Home is the only one of Chicago's cemeteries at which the lawii
system governed exclusively from the beginning; hence the uniform park like
appearance of the grounds so much admired by all visitors. Under this system
no coping or other means of marking the boundaries of lots can be used, ex-
cept corner stones, and these must not rise more than six inches above the
surface, thus making it easy to keep the lawns uniform. The Cemetery Com-
pany furnishes the corner stones with the name of the owner cut upon them
free of charge. Aside from this, those purchasing lots in Forest Home under
this system are exempt from all charges or assessments for keeping their lots
in good order. One of the most commendable features of this cemetery is the
"Perpetual Care Fund" established by the company a few years ago. This
fund is created and continually augmented by semi-annual payments of ten
per cent of the receipts from sale of lots by the Cemetery Company, and is
entirely under the control and for the benefit of lot owners, ensuring them
against any neglect of the grounds at any time hereafter. Of the roads lead-
ing to this cemetery, Madison Street, Riverside Boulevard and Twenty-second
Street, should be preferred. Parties desiring to go by rail can take the Wis-
consin Central main line to Forest Home Station, which is only a few blocks
from the cemetery, or take the Electric Line from the terminus of West Madi-
son Street cable car line to Forest Home.
As it was found desirable, that there be reserved, out of the gross income
of this company, a fund to be used for the purpose of keeping in order, em-
bellishing and improving the cemetery, at a time when the income from the
sale of lots can no longer be used for that purpose by the Board of Directors,
it was resolved, that there be created a fund, to be called the Forest Home
Improvement Fund, which fund shall be under the sole and exclusive man-
agement and control of a BOARD OF TRUSTEES to be called the Trustees of the
Forest Home Improvement Fund. The fund in question shall be created in
the following manner: The Board of Directors shall retain out of the gross
proceeds of the sale of lots, a sum equal to ten per centum, and pay the same
over to said Board of Trustees. The payments so to be made by the Board of
Directors, shall cease, when the said fund reaches the sum of Twenty-five
Thousand ($25,000) Dollars, and the performance of this undertaking on the
part of the Forest Home Cemetery Company may be enforced at any time by
a proper proceeding in equity, to be instituted in the names of the members
of the Board of Trustees.
LIBRARY
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167
WALDHEIM CEMETERY.
Situated in the town of Harlem, on the Desplaines River, and about nine miles
from the city, is a German cemetery of exceptional beauty in its general aspect
as well as in the tasteful and pleasing manner in which the various sections
of the grounds have been laid out and changed into so many bright and cheer-
ful garden spots Like most of the other large cemeteries, Waldheim is open
to all, and makes no distinction between the believer or unbeliever, between
Christian, Jew or Heathen. The park-like grounds contain 80 acres of well
.drained land, about half of which is still covered with a dense wood of healthy
oak trees, whose clays however are numbered. During the last five or six
years, improvements of a costly and quite an extensive character have been
carried on here and wherever one casts his glance, he will see undoubted
proofs of the earnest desire on the part the management, to leave nothing un-
done, that might tend to give greater perfection to the general system and
create a source of gratification for the lot owners and visitors as well. The
remarkable success achieved by the management in this direction is due in a
great measure to the untiring efforts of Mr. John Buhler, the secretary of the
association, who devotes a great deal of his time to the active supervision of
all matters concerning the cemetery, and to the good work done by Mr. George
Schrade, the able superintendent. The management succeeded in inducing
the Wisconsin Central Railroad to extend their tracks to the northeast corner
of the enclosure on Desplaines Avenue, whereby it was made possible to bring
the funeral trains within a few steps of the main entrance; besides these means
of transportation the Electric Street Railway, which connects with the cable
trains on Madison Street at West Fortieth Street, runs its cars up Desplaines
Avenue to the imposing, castle like cemetery gate. The latter contains a
spacious chapel on the right hand side and the business office of the superin-
tendent on the left. From the books in this office can be ascertained, that the
first interment took place on May 7, 1873, and that the bodies laid to rest
there since, number more than 16,000.
Immediately after passing through the gateway and passing along the
main drive leading therefrom, we find ourselves in the midst of a large open
meadow, tastefully planted with trees and shrubs and further embellished by
two small artificial lakes, their mirror-like surface reflecting the azure of the
sky and the swiftly fleeing clouds. On each side of the well kept drives and
paths stretches of fresh green turf meet the eye, relieved by the darker clumps
of shrubs, by flowers and trees and by the scattered monuments, which indicate
the purposes of the'place.
Here a spacious burial-lot can be obtained at a moderate sum by every
household, that shall remain an heirloom forever sacred and inviolate. Kin-
dred of several generations can repose together, and they may adorn their
burial place with such works of art, as affection shall dictate. And not only
single families, but kindred and affiliated branches and societies may choose
their resting places side by side, the ties of friendship and consanguinity,
strong in life, not wholly sundered in death. Waldheim, the German for For-
est Home, does not blind us to the fact of our mortality it cannot and should
not but it brings the fact before us in the least forbidding form and in such
connections, that, while we are subdued and solemnized, we are also sustained
and cheered. So that, while we stand and look upon the grave, all manner of
pleasant images rise before us. Waldheim is not a door leading into dark-
ness, but the gate of glory, where friends come to say their last farewells. It
is one of those cemeteries, happily becoming more and more numerous, where
in a conspicious way, gurdenesque adornment is especially noticeable, far dif-
ferent from many of the old burying grounds, so forlorn and hideous, that the
school-boy hurries past them in affright and both young and old shudder at
the thought of being finally deposited there. It is near enough to the city,
as to be easy of access at all seasons of the year and yet not so nigh, as to sac-
168
rifice aught of its sacredness and privacy, or that it will ever be liable to en-
croachment by the demands of commerce or population.
Waldheim, while not possessing the frigid stateliness of a public park, or
the elaborate decorations and high finish of a suburban country-seat, is truly
a secluded, cultivated scene, with no air of presumption or unfitting display
and awakening no thoughts except those of security, repose, affectionate re-
membrance, cheerful hope, in fine, the grounds wear an expression of solemn-
ity and subdued beauty.
In reference to the portion yet covered with forest oaks, it is proposed to
thin them out from year to year, removing first the oldest and those showing
signs of decay, then the tall and meagre and finally all except those standing
near the avenues or in certain spaces intended for driveways. It is no longer
permitted to surround burial lots with unsightly iron palisades or stone enclos-
ures, because the management is following the example set down by other
progressive cemetery-gardeners, and long ago became determined to avail
itself of the advantages offered by the lawn system.
The living owners of burial lots and graves seem to take great pride in the
tasteful embellishment of those spots so dear to them, and they thereby greatly
assist the cemetery management in their praiseworthy efforts, to press upon
every thing within the enclosure the stamp of harmony and attractiveness.
The number of neglected or forgotten graves is insignificantly small. Through-
out the cemetery parterres of sweet scented flowers, picturesque trees and
clumps of evergreens are scattered in the most appropriate spots. The beau-
ties of the place, indeed, appear to be fully appreciated, for the garden, as we
may not inappropriately call the grounds, are fairly filled with persons, not
only on Sundays, but on every week day during the summer months, evi-
dently enjoying the quiet, the pure air and the charming landscape.
Quite a number of German Societies are the owners of lots here, upon
which some of them, the Druids and Odd Fejlows for instance, have erected
splendid monuments of great artistic merit. Besides these there are the Ger-
man Society, German Altenheim, German Hospital, Aurora Turnverein, Turn-
verein "Vorwaerts," Schleswig-Holstein Benevolent Society, Lodges from the
Orders of Harugari and Sons of Hermann, Herder Lodge from the Order of
Free Masons, Order of Red Men, Social Workingmens' Society of the West
Side, etc. As is well known, the friends of the executed anarchists were per-
mitted by the Waldheim Association to lay the bodies of their so called "Mar-
tyrs" to rest in this cemetery. They were buried near the southern driveway
in a very choice section of the grounds, where their common grave is crow r ned
by a marble head stone, and covered with beds of flowers. The burial lot
contains 1,500 square feet and is enclosed by an iron chain ; in the near future
a large monument with allegorical figures is to take the place of the present
low head stone. In the southwestern corner of the cemetery a Jewish congre-
gation buries its dead.
Upon the monuments that are above mediocrity and show good taste, as
well as the skill of the sculptor, the following names are inscribed : Troost
Bros., Arno Voss, Werner Clussmann, U. Seyfried, Wilhelmine Hellwig. Geo.
Jansen, Louise and Wilhelm Schroeder, Jacques Frohlich, Mathias Schulz, H.
Wiemann, John B. Miiller, N. Righeimer, Anton Schuerle, Friedrich Maas,
Joseph Fischer, M. Gottfried, John L. Horber, E. R. Lott, John Kummer,
B. L. Roos, Johanna Hohner, G. Tarnow. J. Hanke, Peter Koehler, Minna
Maurer, Bodenschatz, Margarethe Underberg, John H. Schmidt, Auguste
Zollner, John Trogg. A. Delp, Moritz Langeloth, John Biihler, etc.
It remains yet to be mentioned that Waldheim also contains a spacious re-
ceiving vault built after the most approved fashion and located on the main
driveway.
The directors of Waldheim Cemetery are: John Buehler, Jos. Fischer,
C. F. Geist, Wm. Feindt, Phil. Maas, Jacob Heissler, John Lingenberg, T. J.
Lefens, G. Schweinfurth, John M. Faulhaber. Dr. Theo. Wild, Theo. Guen-
ther, H. N. Lafrentz and W. C. Seipp. The following are the officers: Phil.
Maas, president; Jacob Heissler, vice-president; J. M. Faulhaber, treasurer;
John Buehler, secretary; G. Schrade, superintendent.
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171
EIGHT SMALL JEWISH CEMETERIES
are established on both sides of the road leading from Forest Home to River-
side, and about one mile distant from the latter cemetery. On the signs that
overhang the entrance-gates, the names of the congregations and societies who
own these burying places are painted as follows: "Austrian-Hungarian Benev-
olent Society;" "Anshe Suwalk, Chicago;" "Chewre Anshe Ernes;" "Moses-
Montefiore;" "Ohavo Amuno;" "B'nai Abraham." "Improved Order of Free
Sons;" "Free Sons of Israel." The cemetery of the last named Order, which
is composed of ten Chicago lodges, is the largest and by far the handsomest of
them all; it is evident from the general appearance of the grounds that they
were laid out and embellished with excellent taste. This cemetery is situated
between the roadway and the Desplaines river, the shores of which at that point
are beautifully ornamented with stately trees, whose heavy green foliage forms
a very effective background to these villages of the dead. The opening of
the cemetery owned by the "Free Sons of Israel" took place in 1876, and since
then more than a hundred bodies were laid to rest there. The directors have
expended over $10,000 for improvements, and they have spared no efforts to
keep pace with the progress made elsewhere in cemetery-work and to provide
these grounds with all the cheerful and yet solemn aspects which we look for
in a model cemetery. The original cost of the five acres of land was $1200,
and in the beginning, lots 12 x 16 feet were sold to members at $10 each. To-
day the value of lots of the same size has advanced to $50. The cemetery is
open not only to members of the Order and the poor it assists and buries, but
also to Jews who do not belong to the organization.
The burial ground of the "Improved Free Sons of Israel," directly opposite
the cemetery of the "Free Sons" without the prefix "Improved" has been sold,
as the Order went out of existence; seemingly it did not prove an "Improve-
ment" on the old Order of Free Sons.
172
CONCORDIA CEMETERY
is situated in the town of Harlem on the Desplaines river, about nine miles
west from the City Hall. The main entrance is on Madison Street, directly
west of the German Old People's Home. This is a German Lutheran Cem-
etery containing 60 acres of well drained land and is under the management
of seven Lutheran Congregations. The grounds everywhere show scrupulous
care and bear evidence that the management is liberal in its expenditures for
necessary improvements. More than half of the entire territory, of which 16
acres are situated south of the Minnesota & Northwestern railroad tracks, has
been laid out and devoted to purposes of interment. According to an estab-
lished rule enclosures of any kind are not permitted around burial lots and
another very wise rule obligates the cemetery-superintendent to keep the
walks and drives clean and in good condition, to allow no weeds to disfigure
lawns or graves, to keep the grass low and the flowers on the little mounds
well watered during dry seasons.
The total number of bodies buried in Concordia reaches nearly 16,000, of
which about half are slumbering in single graves. The cemetery was dedi-
cated and opened in 1872, but not until the association was incorporated as a
stock company in 1884, was there more than ordinary importance placed
upon beautifying and embellishing the grounds. Among the later improve-
ments a massive and ornamental entrance gate and public vault with space
for 400 coffins were the most significant and necessitated an outlay of about
$15,000. The building forming the entrance gate contains the office of the
superintendent, a waiting room and storage cellars. The bell-tower crown-
ing this structure has a height of 55 feet and is covered with copper and slate.
Besides the improvements mentioned the windmill-pump erected a few years
ago also plays an important part among the resources of this model grave-
yard, which is reached by taking the cable and electric cars on Madison Street,
or the trains of the Wisconsin Central Railroad.
, RY
OF THE
175
MOUNT OLIVE.
This charming cemetery is situated near the County Institutions at Dunn-
ing, in the Town of Jefferson, on- the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul R. R.
It can justly lay claim to the designation charming, for it unites in a very
high degree the beauties of a park garden with the repose and solemnity of a
city of the dead. Within the enclosures of this God's Acre there are 52 acres
of high and dry land, laid out in blocks and lots and single graves, planted
with stately trees, flowering shrubs and children of the garden flora, the em-
blems of love, faith and charity.
Although Mount Olive is one of the youngest among Chicago's park-cem-
eteries, it has nevertheless gained quite an enviable reputation for itself as a
burying ground, combining all the elements and advantages, that make up a
model cemetery.
It was turned over to public use in August, 1886, and is now the last rest-
ing place of over 7,000 former inhabitants of Chicago. The lawn system was
adopted from the first and what has been done under this system so far, shows
excellent taste and a thorough knowledge of landscape gardening. Enchanting
views are obtained at different points about the grounds; quite a peculiar fea-
ture of this ' ' Yard of Peace " are a number of well developed crab apple'
trees, which, when laden with their ripe, golden fruit in Autumn, lend a sing-
ular beauty to the picturesque landscape all around. Adjoining these fruit
trees a small grove of firs form a deep green border on the side nearest to the
County Infirmary and will eventually, one by one, be transferred from there
to such spots, as may be in need of tree-ornamentation.
The technical management of the cemetery is entrusted to able hands, to
the experienced superintendent, J. S. Birkeland, who for seventeen years acted
as superintendent of Graceland cemetery, where he earned an enviable repu-
tation and proved an important factor in the accomplishment of many valu-
able improvements.
Mount Olive is a Scandinavian Lutheran cemetery, but the privileges ex-
tended to those, wishing to lay to rest their deceased relatives, are not confined
to Scandinavians or Lutherans alone; people of all creeds and nationalities,
who are able and willing to conform to the rules and regulations laid down by
the cemetery company, are permitted to bring the remains of their departed
loved ones to this beautiful park cemetery, and take away the consoling
thought, that they have left the form that no longer feels the vexations and
struggles of life, in the midst of all this peaceful beauty.
A spacious receiving vault, built after the latest scientific formala and in
connection therewith a tine Chapel have been erected, but the principal fea-
ture in the development of this "God's acre " consists in the natural facilities
for drainage, secured by the remarkable elevation of the grounds. Land, so
thoroughly drained, has no superior for cemetery purposes.
As already indicated, this cemetery is surrounded on all sides by a delight-
ful and vast landscape. The many fine shade trees within the limits of Mount
Olive with their rich foliage, turning into golden yellow, red and brown in au-
tumn, tend to heighten the effect of the picturesque scenery in its entirety.
The highest part of Mount Olive lies at an elevation of 18 feet above the level
of the surrounding prairie, consequently the many handsome monuments
adorning the cemetery can be noticed at some distance peeping through the
leafy bowers of shrubs and trees.
176
The cemetery company was organized and received its charter in April,
1886. The License was issued to Paul O. Stensland, Frithjof Hjortdahl, Ole
L. Stangeland, Andrew P. Johnson, Christian L. Benson. Hjalmar P. Bruse-
witz and Alfred Jacobson as Commissioners to open books for subscription to
the capital stock of said company.
The capital stock of the Scandinavian Lutheran Cemetery Association
originally was twenty-five thousand dollars. Among the largest shareholders
were: Paul O. Stensland, Bernt Anderson, A. P. Johnson, Ole L. Stangeland,
Jens Olson, Jacob Johnson, John Eskilson, John Anderson, C. L. Benson,
Louis Carlson, L. Branstad, G. Gabrielson, etc.
On the 10th day of April, 1886, the stockholders, in a meeting held for
that purpose, proceeded to elect Directors for the term of one year, viz;
Andrew P. Johnson, Alfred Jacobson, Paul O. Stensland, Ole L. Stangeland,
Christian L. Benson, Benjamin F. Richolson and Severt T. Gunderson,
Of the officers elected at that time Mr. Paul O. Stensland, who was chosen
Secretary and Treasurer, has been in active service ever since up to the present
day and to his indefatigable and zealous activity is owing in a great measure
the remarkable success, Mount Olive cemetery has achieved.
The Directors of the Cemetery Association now are: S. T. Gunderson Pres-
ident; Paul O. Stensland, Secretary and Treasurer; Charles E. Schlytern,
Soren D. Thorsen, Anker Stabford, Halvpr Michelsen, and John Oleson.
Paul O. Stensland was born in Sandeid, Stavanger Amt, Norway, on May
9th, 1847. He grew up in the healthful surroundings of farm life in his native
land and received his early elementary education in the schools of the district.
At the age of eighteen years we find him leaving the family home and farm
and traveling to Hindostan, in Peninsular Asia. In this new land he imme-
diately connected himself with the cotton and wool industries of India and be-
came a large buyer. For almost six years he traveled extensively through
that country and at the same time acquired great knowledge and experience
thereby. In the fall of 1870, he returned to his native country and during his
short stay of three months both of his parents died. This sad family bereav-
ment prompted Mr. Stensland to again leave his home and this time he chose
Chicago as the field of his labors. He arrived here in the spring of 1871, and
has resided here ever since. His first venture here was in the dry goods busi-
ness, in 1885 he entered the real estate and insurance business and four years
later he was sufficiently known and had gained the confidence and respect of
his fellow citizens in such a degree, that he commenced a private banking
business, in which he was so successful that in 1891 he changed this private
bank to a State bank; of this, the Milwaukee Ave. State Bank, he is at present
the president. Mr. Stensland is, as appears from the description of Mount
Olive cemetery, the Secretary and Treasurer of this company and he also is
the publisher of the Scandinavian newspaper ' Norden." For nine years,
from 1879 to 1888, he was a member of the Board of Education of this city, in
which he acquired a high reputation by his energy and executive ability in
the discharge of his duties as member and chairman of some of the most im-
portant committees.
The former Mayor of this city, DeWitt C. Cregier. appointed him a mem-
ber of a committee in connection with Washington Hesing, Ferd. Peck and
General Fitz-Simons, for the purpose of revising the city charter of Chicago.
When Mr. James Scott, of the Chicago " Herald," resigned from the pos-
ition as director of the World's Columbian Exposition, the vacancy was filled
by the election of Mr. Stensland to the position. In April, 1892, he was re-
elected director. He is a member of the Iroquois Club and several Scandi-
navian societies.
OF THE
<->- : ILL1NOW
170
BOHEMIAN NATIONAL CEMETERY.
The extreme north-western portion of our city, the Town of Jefferson,
likewise possesses a number of cemeteries and near them people, to whom
these cemeteries and the funeral corteges arriving and leaving furnish the
means of subsistence. These people are the grave diggers, saloon-keeper?,
gardeners, manufacturers and dealers in monuments, etc.
. The largest and most extensively used of these burying grounds is the
Bohemian National Cemetery, situated about one mile from Irving Park in
a north-easterly direction on Crawford Avenue. Here the pilgrim who has
arrived at the end of life's journey, can enter without being questioned about
his religion, color, or nationality. Equal rights are accorded to all. The
immediate vicinity of this city of the dead is very charming, made so by the
many pretty groves and other natural beauties the surrounding country
possesses.
Since the Bohemian National Cemetery has been opened the whole
neighborhood has greatly improved and all the property around has risen in
value, especially after the region had been annexed to the city of Chicago.
The place is but seven miles from the Court House, and will soon be connected
with the center of the city by an electric railroad which the enterprising
citizens of the 27th ward are going to build soon, having been incorporated
for that purpose in September, 1892. This railroad will also connect the
Insane Asylum of Cook County, and the Bohemian and Polish Catholic
Cemetery with the city, and will greatly help in enlivening and settling this
beautiful part of the city ; here the Chicago River glides through beautiful
fields and groves, having its water untarnished and not yet poisoned by the
additions received farther on from so many shops and factories along
its shores.
The cemetery was opened in the summer of 1877 and owes its existence
to the freethinking half of the Bohemian population of Chicago. There
were about 40,000 Bohemians in the city at that time, of whom about 25 per
cent belonged to the Catholic church and the others where freethinkers, hav-
ing a large congregation of Bohemian Freethinkers founded in 1871, called
the "Svobodna^Obec" and meeting at the large Bohemian Hall on Taylor
street, that was destroyed by fire not long ago. The minister of this congre-
gation was Frank B. Zdrubek, and the Catholics were led by their pastor,
Rev. Jos. Molitor, at the St. Wenceslaus Church on Dekoven street.
In the year 1876 a discord of long duration broke out among the church
members of the St. Wenceslaus' parish. Many persons who considered them-
selves good Catholics were prohibited from burying their relatives and mem-
bers of their families in the Bohemian and Polish Catholic Cemetery, situated
on Milwaukee avenue, about 13 miles from the Court House. The parson
put forth different reasons for his actions which where not acceptable and did
not seem reasonable to the Bohemians, and their discontent grew alarmingly,
as the repeated refusals of burying caused great troubles and discords among
the mourning relatives. To end all these disturbances, the Freethinkers con-
voked a mass meeting on January 7th, 1877, and there the foundation of the
new organization for the purpose of building a Bohemian National Cemetery
was laid. The beginnings were small and slow, but good will and earnest
endeavor succeeded magnificently. Many and great obstacles stood in the
way of the undertaking, but all were overcome, and the cemetery, which
originally had but 30 acres of ground has 50 acres now, and at this writing
nearly 9,600 bodies sleep their eternal sleep there.
The organization began with but seven strong Bohemian Societies and
Lodges and grew every year until it now counts 36 Lodges or Societies. Every
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Society and Lodge sends two representatives to the Board of Managers, con-
sisting now of 72 members who are mostly elected alternately from their
societies for one and two years. The incorporation of the Board of Managers
was signed at Springfield, 111., April llth, 1877.
Up to the present time about thirty acres of the entire area have been
devoted to sepulture, and the superintendent deserves to be complimented
for the excellent manner in which he performs his duties. The Board of
Managers meet every two weeks at the Bohemian and English Free School
building, No. 400 W. 18th street, and are untiring in working industriously
for this undertaking, having no other remuneration but the thanks and
sometimes ingratitude of their societies. Some of the members of the manage-
ment have served throughout these fifteen years faithfully without pay,
deserving high acknowledgement for their labors and sacrifices in the inter-
est of this great cause.
During the summer and autumn months the grounds represent a beauti-
ful garden, artistically laid out and preserved by the skillful cemetery
gardener, Mr. Leopold Ine, who takes good care of five green-houses in con-
nection with the cemetery, devoting most of his time to artistic flori-culture,
being especially clever and successful in bringing forth the rarest kinds of
roses. How profitable the raising of flowers proves itself here, becomes
evident from the fact that from the sale of flowers, the decoration of graves,
and from watering the plants on these little mounds, no less than $6,600 was
taken in during 1892. The five green-houses with all their improvements
have cost $11 615 and the artesian wells $3,000.
As has been the case in the most other cemeteries, here too the beginn-
ing was made with stone copings and railings around graves, but several
years ago the popular lawn system found favor with the Board of Managers
and has happily now become the rule. Especially the western part of the
cemetery is laid out in accordance with this system, and forms one of the
most pleasant spots in the cemetery.
The management has very properly placed a great deal of importance
and paid out large sums of money on the drainage and water systems, which
are models of perfection, and have so far cost over $9,000. The walks and
% roads in tho cemetery up to the present time involved an expenditure of
$15.000. The first artesian well was sunk to a depth of 1610 feet, from which
250 gallons of pure and clear water gush forth each minute. All the pro-
perty of the cemetery with its improvements amounts to $80,000, according
to the last report of the financial committee. The Board of Managers devote
a considerable portion of the clear profits of the undertaking to benevolent and
educational purposes. They bury from 30 to 50 poor dead persons every
year gratis, and allow besides other small gifts for charitable purpose?,
several hundred dollars for Bohemian and English free schools, of which
Ihere are five in the city of Chicago.
In 1885 a monument to Rev. Prof. Ladimir Klacel, a Bohemian philo-
>opher and scholar who died at Belle Plaine, la., in 1883, was erected at a
cost of $800 with the bust of the great freethinker faithfully carved in white
marblo by the sculptor Frank Hess of Irving Park. In the spring of 18&2 a
ine Soldiers' Monument was erected and dedicated, costing about f5,000.
Many of the Bohemian Societies have taken st^ps leading to the erection of
% Bohemian National Monument in this cemetery, for which space has been
reserved in a large circular plat of the main driveway. There are quite a
number of handsome and costly monuments scattered over this cemetery,
flpon which we read the names of the most prominent Bohemian families of
Chicago.
The following are the officers for 1893: Vaclav Matas, President; Joseph
JTora, Vice-President ; Joseph Becvar, Corresponding Secretary; St. J. Halik.
Financial Secretary; Joseph Babka, Treasurer; Joseph A. Smejkal, Joseph
Sindelar, Frank Fucik, Board of Trustees; Joseph Kostner, Superintendent.
Bohemian National Cemetery. Soldiers' Monument.
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Sketches and Views.
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P. S. PETERSON'S ROSE HILL NURSERY.
About a mile and a half west of the cemetery at Rosehill and the ad-
joining station of the Northwestern Railroad, in the midst of a charming stretch
'of country, is situated an extensive plantation full of interest to the friends of
arboriculture and the lovers of Nature in general. This picturesque oasis in
the wide plain given over to agricultural pursuits, covers an area of over four
hundred acres and forms the well known Nursery of Mr. P. S. Peterson, which
is not only the largest but also the oldest "tree-school" in the vicinity of Chi-
cago, having been established by the present owner twenty-eight years ago, dur-
ing which time it has furnished a very large number of the shade-trees and orna-
mental shrubs now adorning our public parks, cemeteries, residence streets,
and private gardens. From this it may be inferred, that arboriculture is car-
ried on here as a business enterprise, but notwithstanding this fact Mr. Peter-
sou deserves to be ranked among the most prominent promoters of the public
welfare, for without his ceaseless and highly successful labors upon the field
of tree-growing for so many years, the people of our Metropolis would at
the present day not be enabled to enjoy the blessings which are dispensed through
the planting of foliage-trees and blooming shrubs upon our public grounds
and streets, in such a large measure as is really and happily the case. Many
thousands of the most beautiful trees in our parks: maple, linden, catalpas,
elms, ash, poplars, etc, numberless shrubs and bushes, that cover themselves
in the spring-time with "a gay and festive mantle of sweet-scented flowers, re-
ceived their tirst training at the hands of Mr. Peterson and his able assistants,
at the head of which stands the only son of the proprietor, Mr. Win. A. Peter-
son, a young gentleman of extensive knowledge and learning.
Among a people of culture and enlightenment planting and embellishing
Nature herself, ranks among the first of public virtues. Gardening was prob-
ably one of the first arts that succeeded to that of building houses, but no
doubt the term Garden for many centuries implied no more than a kitchen-
garden or orchard. Then the custom of making square gardens enclosed with
walls were established to the exclusion of nature and prospect and these gar-
dens became selfish and sumptuous solitudes. To crown these impotent dis-
plays of false taste, the shears were applied to the lovely wildness of form
with which Nature had distinguished each various species of tree and shrub;
the compass and square were of more use in plantations than the landscape archi-
tect. Sir Henry Englefield was one of the first who saw the errors, the landscape
gardeners of his time had fallen into and he selected with singular taste that
chief beauty of all gardens, prospect and fortunate points of view. Prospects
were before this sacrificed to convenience and warmth and since then the art
of landscape gardening has made such rapid strides in the direction of dis-
covering the point of perfection, that we may be justly proud of what has
been achieved in softening Nature's harshnesses and copying her graceful
touch .
But in forming ornamental plantations the selection of the proper species
of trees and shrubs is a most important point. In the choice of trees, four
things are observable: the height, the form, the color and the use. The lat-
ter is more essential to a good selection than may appear at first sight, noth-
ing heightens the idea of ornament more than utility. Immediately under the
eye, the gaudy shrub and the ornamental, though useless, Exotic may be ad-
mitted, but for more distant objects and in less embellished situations the
Timber tree ought to prevail. There is harmony in taste, as in music; variety
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and even wildness, in its proper place, may be admitted, but discord ought
not be allowed. Trees should not only be well chosen, but also well ar-
ranged and well planted. If that is done, it will soon be observed, that even
grass and trees alone are capable of producing a wonderful richness and ele-
gance.
The cheerful and inviting country-residence, in which Mr. Peterson dwells
with his family, seems a suitable accompaniment to the stately trees, that em-
bellish the recluse landscape, of which the delightful domicile of the propri-
etor forms the main attraction. No wonder that strangers that pass by pause
to admire this rural scenery; and the liberality of Mr. Peterson is equal to his
taste. His gratifications are heightened by those who seek enjoyment in his
place; giving orders that nothing may be omitted which can increase their
pleasure. The house throughout shows that it is the home of intellectual pur-
suits and refinement, being fully in harmony with the charming effect of the
lofty grove without, whose fine old trees contribute not a little to m,ake up an
assemblage, which gives the mind ample food for reflection and great satis-
faction to the eye.
There are a number of outhouses, of which the imposing arid massive
stable is the most conspicuous. It is inhabited by many fine draft and riding-
horses, cows of the Jersey breed and also contains the wagons and coaches
in use on the place. From this park the tree and shrub plantations extend in
all directions; the plants may there be seen in endless straight rows like sold-
iers in line stretching as far as the eye can reach and producing charming ef-
fects with their various shapes and color-tints. With the view of laying down
a crop destined to stand for generations, Mr. Peterson has taken every p re-
caution to secure its vigor and success, by selecting plants of the most approved
varieties of the species; he well understands the importance to obtain young
plants grown from a good stock, or from the most approved trees of their
kind. Another thing in which he excels is the process of transplanting large
and heavy forest trees. Nowhere else has this branch of nursery-work been
brought to such a high state of perfection. Trees that weighed from 15 to 20
tons and had attained the ripe age of 100 years, were successfully removed
from their native soil and transplanted to new parts.
The growing of trees and shrubs on these lands is as a matter of course
confined to the cultivation of such as are ornamental and suitable to climate
and soil. The majority of the plants are propagated on the premises, some are
imported from foreign countries and they comprise principally new or rare spe-
cies,in fact mostly plants that may be classed among the latest achievements upon
the field of tree and shrub-culture, and which possess all the qualities requisite
to a successful growth as an ornamental tree in this section of our country.
And what is very important, a rolling appearance can given to our flat land-
scape by the judicious arrangement of trees and shrubs of different sizes and
shapes.
Taking a stroll through the extensive plantation, we find among the trees
many kinds, that have a large number of family relations, all adapted to our
climate and many of recent introduction; all promising to become valuable
and ornamental.
While wandering about, with Mr. Peterson as our guide, let us make
brief notes of some of the best known and most popular ornamental trees and
shrubs that present themselves to our notice.
The Mountain Ash is a well-known beautiful tree with smooth branches
and the leaves pinnate, with uniform, serrate, smooth leaflets. The beauty of
its foliage is hardly surpassed by any other deciduous tree.
The tall or common Ash attains to a great size, reaching in fine specimens
to about 100 feet. It possesses a very elegant figure and forms during sum-
mer a very desirable object in lawn or park scenery.
The chief use of the Linden or Lime tree is to form an embowering shade
along avenues and as a park tree or lawn ornament. In Scotland on the lawn
at Gordon Castle stands a Linden tree with a head of nearly 100 feet and a
trunk of over 16 feet in diameter. Our American Linden is of a more nv
bust habit than the European tree.
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The whole genus of Maple is remarkably handsome and some of the species
grow rapidly at an early age in almost any soil. Many kinds are interesting
on account of their flowering early at the time of the expansion of the foliage;
and from their elegantly- lobed leaves, of the finest texture, which in autumn
furnish the most exquisite tints of every shade of yellow and scarlet, they are
highly prized in ornamental plantations.
The Elm (Ulmus americana) is a tall elegant tree of rapid growth. Prom
the density of its foliage and its clustering habit of growth in bright weather
it displays a variety of light and shade such as painters appreciate in such
objects.
The Poplar tree, like the Willows, is unisexual either a male or female
plant. The poplar trees are remarkable for rapidity of growth and therefo're
.they are frequently employed to furnish immediate effect in a bare locality.
Among ornamental Willows the Salix Babylonica (Weeping Willows) forms
a very graceful and interesting tree, but the American varieties have a
higher value on account of their being extremely hardy. Their long slender
twigs droop down with much elegance and become agitated by the slightest
impulse of the wind, like the spray of a playing fountain. Ihe Mahogany-
willow, coming from France, with its bright red stem and branches makes a
warm and attractive addition to our cold and long winters.
The Birch, adapting itself to various soils and situations, possesses a wider
range than any other plant. There are some very fine weeping birches, espe-
cially the cut-leaved, which add a graceful variety of verdure to scenes in them-
selves beautiful. .
The Alder in a cultivated state and in good soil attains to a considerable
size and often becomes very picturesque in figure and displays a ramification
little inferior to that of the oak.
Considered as an ornament few trees attract more attention than the
Beech. Its stem is massive and powerful, its bark is smooth and of a silvery
cast, and when the heat of summer unfolds its silken foliage, it displays a ver-
dure of softness and delicacy and when viewed in the park, amidst the sun-
shine and showers of summer time, it is a gem indeed.
The weeping Beech is a very valuable and ornamental tree and so is the
out-leaved weeping beech, which is one of the most elegant pendulous trees in
cultivation. It has the advantage of at once assuming the pendulous habit of
growth.
The Norway Spruce is also of great beauty, of very uniform growth and,
when allowed sufficient space in a congenial soil, it retains even at an advanced
age, its branches and luxuriant foliage.
The Pine tree tribe is too well known to need any description. It cou-
sis.ts of evergreen trees, natives of Europe, Asia and America, and is perhaps
one of the most valuable of any genus of ligueous plants.
The Sycamore grows to a great height and ample size, throwing out a wide-
spread top. Its leaves are vine-shaped. Hanbury says, the Sycamore being
wounded exudes a great quantity of liquor, of which is made good wine.
There are three varieties of the Sycamore.
The beautiful Catalpa will grow to a height of 40 or 50 feet, anc as the
leaves are tine and large, it should be planted as a standard in the midst of
fine openings, but these should be such as are well sheltered, for the leaves,
being quite large, make such a resistance to the summer's high winds, as to
occasion whole branches to be split off by that powerful element. Of great
beauty are the white flowers breaking open late in the Spring and adding in
a great measure to the elegance of this handsome shade-tree.
The Snow-drop tree or white Fringe tree, a native of Virginia, will grow to
the height of about fifteen feet. Its leaves are large, shaped like a laurel, broad
and roundish, and the flowers of a pure white, come out in bunches, in May,
from every part of the tree.
As an ornamental tree Chestnut also has a degree of greatness belonging
to it which recommends it strongly to the gardeners attention.
The Hydrangea seldom grows to more than a yard or four feet high and
affords as much pleasure to those who delight in fine flowers as it does to the
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botanist. The leaves are a great ornament to these plants; being very large
and having their upper surface of a tine green and their under rather downy.
But the flowers constitute the greatest beauty of these plants, for they are pro-
duced in very large bunches in August. Their color is white and the end of
every bunch will be ornamented with them. They have an agreeable odor
and make such a show altogether, as to distinguish themselves even at a con-
siderable distance.
Of the shrubbery St. John's Wort, or Hypericum, there are several varieties,
one of which will grow to a height of eight feet. The flowers are yellow and
make a good show in June and July and are succeeded by oval black-colored
capsules, containing ripe seeds in the autumn.
The deciduous Privet ( Ligustrum Vulgare ) will grow to a height of about
ten or twelve feet. The dark green leaves continue on the tree very late and
the flowers, which are white and very beautiful, are succeeded in the autumn
by black berries, which at that season constitute the greatest beauty of the
plant.
The black and garden Mulberry is principally cultivated for the fruit and
in ornamental plantations a few of them. will be sufficient to make the collect-
tion general.
The two thorned Acacia (Robinia) gets its leaves late in the Spring, but
for this it makes ample amends by the beautiful foliage it will display soon
after. But its greatest beauty it receives from its flowers, which are produced
in long pendulous bunches in June, their color is white.
The Locust tree (false Acacia) grows very rapidly in rich, dry, well shelt-
ered soil and becomes a tree of considerable height.
The Laburnum is the largest species of the very ornamental genus Cy-
tisus. It is a low deciduous tree with trifoliate leaves.
The Elder tree comprehends several species and has been known medicin-
ally from the earliest period of our medicinal history.
Besides those mentioned we also find many elegant species of Clematis,
Ivy, Jasmine, Honeysuckle, Magnolia, Syringa, Sumach, Rose bushes, Lilac,
SpiraBa, Arbor Vitse, Viburnum, Calycanthus, Mock Orange, Bignonia, Vir-
ginia' Creeper, Nightshade, etc.
Naturally there are not a few of the shrubs which find it very difficult to
thrive and keep up a healthy growth in smoky factory-districts; others again
can ill endure cold winds, while another class will demand a sunny location to
ripen out its twigs and a fourth a position with plenty of shade; such con-
ditions can be found many more. In laying out parks, gardens or cemeteries
it is of the utmost importance to make a wise selection of shrubs and to place
them in positions, where they will grow and become an object of delight to
the beholder. Especially is this true in regard to cemeteries. There the gar-
dener can produce much more pleasing effects and impressions, than the sculp-
tor with masterpieces of his art.
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EGANDALE.
The prevailing disposition among the people of the eastern cities to turn
away from the overcrowded and inconvenient summer-resorts and seek recrea-
tion and repose in country-homes of their own, is rapidly taking hold of their
brethren in the western states, but instead of having to choose worn-out, aban-
doned farms, like many of those in the New England states are, where natural
scenery alone atones for the shortcomings indicated, " Chicago! tes" have with-
in easy reach of their city homes and business places a section of country, full
of scenic beauty where picturesque woodlands and water-views, fern-clad
dells and velvety lawns vie with each other in well asserted claims for genuine
admiration.
Commencing just north of our city and bordering Lake Michigan for
forty miles or more is a magnificent stretch of land yet largely in its primeval
beauty. Gradually rising, the surface extending northward culminates in
a height of about ninety feet, forming at the shore-line bold and precipitous
bluffs. From Winetka north to Waukegan for quite a distance landward the
surface is ramified by heavily wooded ravines, gradually growing deeper as
they approach the lake and widening out until they represent a "sunken for-
est" of considerable area. At Highland Park, these ravines are at their best
and within the last few years many of Chicago's prominent citizens have here
selected sites for summer-homes. Here the surface is gently undulating, form-
ing numerous knolls, from which enchanting scenic-effects are everywhere vis-
ible; commanding views of the lake, with a sail or two mostly always in sight,
for along this shore the great commerce of the lake passes on its way north
and south; magnificent ravine-pictures, showing the feathery tree-tops, spring-
ing from a low level, nod their plumes as a greeting to the passing breeze,
thus calming and quieting the mind through the medium of our vision.
The most conspicuous points of landscape-beauties are rapidly being
taken for human habitations and many costly imrovements of this kind are
under way. We choose for the purpose of illustrating some of the natural beau-
ties of this north- shore paradise with its glades and groves and cool secluded
nooks "Egandale," a typical and model summer home, where peace and re-
pose reign supreme, where rural, rustic beauty exerts its soothing and refresh-
ing influence. The broad vine-clad verandah suggests a cool retreat indeed
during the mid-day hours. From this leafy bower is seen as charming a water-
view, as some of the most renowned lakes of this country can boast of. A
roadway near by, descending a ravine bank on its way to the lake some eighty
feet below, cuts through the overlapping trees, through which is visible, em-
bowered in emerald-green, the merrily dancing waters over the partly sub-
merged pebbled shore and by a lucky chance the bright light of the rising
harvest-moon is spread out over the path of this vision and illuminates the
rippling surface with its silvery fleece.
Egandale consists of five and a half acres, nearly one-third of which is
composed of wooded ravines. A main ravine forms the southern and western
boundary line and small sub-ravines extend into the tableland thus forming
lovely bays and other points of interest. Being heavily wooded they act as
shrubbery belts to hide and mask "surprises," which the wanderer constantly
meets with be it a rustic bridge, or a vine-covered bower, or some unexpected
enchanting lake-view there are many of them. One lake-view is particu-
larly fine, where from a point, looking over the main ravine eighty feet deep,
196
which here makes an abrupt turn, a broad expanse of water is seen over the
tree-tops. The trees of the upper portion of the banks form a V-shaped frame
for the pictures and here again is seen the rising moon with all its accompany-
ing glory.
We have room for only a few illustrations of the many interesting spots
of this summer-home. The "Rockery" speaks for itself as a good illustration
of what can be accomplished in this department of landscape work. The
"Baskef'-picture shows part of the lawn the ravine trees bounding it on the
south the "Rockery," in the distance, in a line with the "Basket, "and the
roadway leading to the lake.
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DOMESTIC CONSERVATORIES.
There are degrees of beauty in the leaves of plants; and while it is not
reasonable to suppose that any one cultivator can find accommodation for all the
choice Exotics which are to be found in the principal gardens of this country
or Europe, it is quite reasonable to conclude thatfrom want of space he would
be compelled to make a selection, retaining only those which most commend
themselves to his admiration, either on account of their bold and striking or
distinct character, or from their delicacy and beauty.
Amateur plant growers have everywhere largely increased during the last
few years and the collection of plants they cultivate is a proof that their con-
ception of the beautiful is not confined to brilliant colored flowers alone, but
that they are able to appreciate grace and elegance in the form and markings
of the leaves, independent of bloom, which has been for so many years the sole
aim of the horticulturist. But although the beautiful-leaved plants are exceed-
ingly ornamental and gay when grouped together by themselves, a judicious
selection from both classes, according to the space at disposal, is the surest
means of producing a gay and cheerful effect throughout the entire year.
As a well known writer says: "For so many years it was the sole aim of
the horticulturist to look forward to the development of flowering plants as
the sole reward of a whole seasons labor. Now, however, we live in happier
times, and derive a greater share of pleasure from our plants, because we grow
and prize many which have beautifully variegated or otherwise richly orna-
mented leaves. How it was, that we were so long learning to love these highly
ornamental plants, it is difficult to say; but we are becoming thoroughly alive
now to the noble and massive beauty displayed by some, to the graceful and
elegant outlines of others and to the richness and singularity in the colors and
markings of the leaves of many more."
The love of the beautiful in nature, from a pansy to a forest oak, is deeply
implanted in the human breast, and constitutes a source which requires only
to be reached and acted upon in order to diffuse on every side innumerable ad-
vantages to individuals and to society. We see the love of plants and flowers
existing, apparently under the most discouraging circumstances, and in spots
where poverty chokes almost all the springs of wholesome pleasure. It is piti-
able to see these sickly objects of care in the pent-up city pining under the
influence of the dry atmosphere; and deep must be the inherent taste which
can persevere in resisting the obstacles to healthy vegetation, caused by dele-
terious matter floating constantly in the air, the excess of aridity or moisture,
excessive heat and cold, sudden alternations of temperature, and nipping blasts
from over the level plains.
Against these destructive influences, the green-house or conservatory,
which formerly was regarded as exclusively the appendage of the stately man-
sion, or the suburban residences of the opulent, is a protection. The domestic
green-house has been made an inexpensive means of gratifying a taste, which,
while it is at once refined and elegant, excites an inquisitive spirit that raises
those who are fortunate enough to be under its influence, above low and friv-
olous pursuits.
The exclusion of particles of soot and other noxious matter adapts the
green-house for the city as well as the country, and we may select any space
of sufficient size in which to build our green-house and bid the plants of tropi-
cal regions flourish in the most unpropitious spots in the heart of Chicago. In
prisons, men have solaced themselves for the loss of liberty by the visits of a
200 -
spider or a mouse, whose motions they have studied and watched with delight;
but here is a study open to a great many of those who enjoy the comforts of a
home, which is pregnant with the most admirable results, at once gratifying
the eye and informing the mind and opening a page of the book of nature to
the dweller of the city.
The foregoing must not lead the reader" to the belief, that a treatise on
greenhouse-gardening and plant-culture is to follow. That is left to those
who possess the necessary qualifications and knowledge of plants.
The subject presented itself to the author during his visits to several of
the most complete private collections of plants under glass-roofs in this city
and among them none have obtained a greater celebrity than the plant-houses
of the gentlemen named in the pages following. These men have spared nei-
ther time nor money in gathering together from almost every quarter of the
world some of the most wonderful and remarkable productions of the veget-
able kingdom.
ADOLPH SCHONINGER'S CONSERVATORY AND GARDEN.
Mr. Adolph Schoninger is one of the few Chicagoans that have realized their
youthful ideals. They had clung to him; he had never deviated from the pro-
gramme he had mapped out in his mind many years ago. And later he set
about putting them in concrete shape. For a number of years he had found
untold pleasure in horticulture and hot-house gardening at his residence, and
recently, with practically illimitable means at his disposal, he resolved to real-
ize his boldest dream, bo he bought a large plat of desirable property on Mel-
rose Street, way out in Lake View, midway between Evanston Avenue and
the lake. And on this he laid out a spacious garden and built him a fine
house commodious, just to his taste.
And then he proceeded to build, adjacent to and directly connecting with
the house, a fine and large private conservatory. And it is this conservatory
and the propagating houses belonging to it which are worthy of a description.
Among the 1,500 kinds of foliage plants, flowers and fruit-trees represented in
the green and hot houses under the care of a gardener, there are a hundred or
more of the rarest and costliest. Some new varieties have been propagated by
his own skill, and a few of these are as yet not generally known to florists,
and are still awaiting baptismal ceremonies.
. It is in the matter of orchids, those eccentric and luxurious children of the
tropics, that this conservatory is especially rich. The collection comprises
several hundreds of them, and among them are a score or more of very rare
ones. The dining-room connects with the conservatory by a broad, high
glass door which is generally left open. Entering through it a scene of sur-
passing vernal beauty meets the eye. A balmy air, slightly saturated with
grateful moisture, fills the lungs. All around and over-head blossoms of deep
tint give out a rich fragrance, and the eye feasts on the graceful, feathery fol-
iage of palms and ferns. In a small but pretty aviary birds of tropical plum-
age hop and chirp and sing, and an aquarium of handsome design is alive with
glistening goldfishes and other creatures that love the water as their native
element, while pinky shells and ferns of softest green make a harmonious color-
effect about them. The foot treads on a smooth, polished surface of stone,
and through the glass doors beyond a glimpse of still rarer and more delicate
plant life is had. As we look down these long lines of fantastic vegetation,
glorying under the beams of a burning sun, and wrapped in a bath of humid
half -stiff ocative air, it requires no great stretch of the imagination to conceive
ourselves translated to those tropical countries where nature at play laughs at
the rules to which she succumbs in our own more temperate country.
Amidst the noble palm-trees the mind is struck with a feeling almost of
awe. He must be apathetic, indeed, whose thoughts are not elevated in such
a scene. Well did Linnaeus call palms the princes of the vegetable world; the
beautiful character of their crown of leaves amply justifies the title. The
species of palms and other plants found in Mr. Schoninger's houses are nearly
all of them dwellers of the other plant-houses named in these pages and can be
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admired by any respectable person, who may apply for admission to any one of
these conservatories.
Mr. Schoninger has rendered his conservatory pleasing by selecting prin-
cipally ornamental plants of robust constitution, with green leaves of different
shades or variegated and stout in texture. There are among a host of others:
Palms, Dracaenas, Ferns, Begonias, Agaves, Yuccas, Anthuriums, Aralias,
Crotons, Rhododendrons, Pelargoniums, Gloxinias, Geraniums, Fuchsias, bul-
bous plants in great variety, Camellias, etc.
During the summer months Mr. Schoninger divides his early summer
morning hours and the time after his return from his factory between tli<?
conservatory and his many outdoor plants, which latter, on account of theif
being spread and scattered over a large piece of territory, require a great deal
of care and nurturing. This garden is a beauty indeed, with its handsome
. floral decorations, its artistically embellished lily-pond, its stately trees and
shrubs, forming in all a very appropriate assemblage for the elegant house in
their midst.
EDWARD UIHLEIN'S CONSERVATORY.
To the friends of nature, who on their excursions to the parks make use
of the street car-lines, the horse-railway on North Avenue offers a most desir-
able means of reaching Humboldt Park after having paid a visit to Lincoln
Park, or to those who desire to go frotn Humboldt Park to the park on the
North Side, 'for the cars of said line form a welcome connection between those
two pleasure-gardens. They pass by Wicker Park, a finely ornamented square,
or rather triangle, with beautiful trees, lawns, walks, ponds, etc, surrounded
on all sides by handsome private residences, many of these having pretty little
flower-gardens in front, by which the owners or tenants of the houses evince
their love of flowers in a marked degree. But foremost among these friends
of the children of Flora stands Mr. Edward Uihlein, one of the vice-presidents
of the Chicago Horticultural Society, a gentleman of fine tastes and great pop-
ularity, and one who commands the honor and respect of all who have the good
fortune of being acquainted with him.
Mr. Uihleiu resides on Ewing Place, between Robey Street and Hoyne
Avenue, where he and his family occupy a palatial residence that stands on
the western end of a large park-like garden, richly but at the same time very
tastefully embellished with flowers, shrubs and shade-trees. In the rear of
these grounds and in close proximity to the family residence are situated the
highly interesting greenhouses of Mr. Uihlein, which contain a collection of
plants equal if not superior to any other private collection in this city. On
these plants Mr. Uihlein bestows a great amount of loving care and under his
judicious and skilled treatment they thrive and prosper like grateful children
under the influences of affectionate parents. The total space devoted to the
indoor-culture of flowers and plants covers an area of 34x56 feet and occupies
an elevation high enough to furnish flowing water to a grotto of stalagmite
situated in front of the pavilion-like conservatory. A neat fountain and a
small goldfish-pond are attractive appendages of the warm-house filled with a
wealth of rare and beautiful plants.
The greatest interest is awakened by the superb collection of orchids that
are partly suspended from the glass roofs of the greenhouses, partly found in
pots along the tiers below.
The arrangement of the plants is pretty much after the natural system
and each has a label with its correct botanical name. The terrestrial orchids
are mostly placed in flower pots, filled with appropriate soil and these are in
some cases put upon other empty pots to secure the drainage, while the epi-
phytes or air-plants are all supported in the air in a manner diversified and
curious.
Several of the superb tribe cattleya, named after an ardent admirer and
cultivator of orchideous plants, were in full bloom during the author's visit,
many of them emitting a fragrance which, added to their pre-eminent loveli-
ness, makes them orchids of great esteem. One brilliant flower perfumed an
area of many feet around it with a scent like verbena. The mimic powers are
204
not confined to form, but extend also to 'the odor of other vegetable produc-
tions. For instance there is a dusky tiger-spotted plant whose flower exhales
a delicious smell like that of raspberries; another sad-colored flower of very
graceful drooping inflorescence possesses a scent precisely like that of the
scented geranium.
Then there is the Pitcher-Plant, a native of Ceylon and a wonderful vagary
of nature. The stem is erect and of a brownish color and the leaves are long
and spear-shaped; the end of the central rib being lengthened out and sustain-
ing the pitcher by being attached to the bottom of it. Were the pitcher cut
off and exhibited to any person unacquainted with the existence of such a veg-
etable structure, when he examined its rougher, leathery, spotted exterior, its
firm and rounded lip, so artificially marked in green and red, and its accurately-
adapted lid, he would most probably unhesitatingly pronounce it to be an ar-
tificial production. A little sourish water, supposed to be secreted by the
inner surface of the organ, is occasionally found in the pitcher. There are
several varieties of this plant, the most popular of which seems the Nepenthes
distillatorid .
Baskets containing the magnificent class of orchids called Stanhopea also
hang from the roof of said houses. Their peculiarity consists in the produc-
tion of their flowers from the roots, which are of a large size, and beautiful
texture and coloring.
Among the extra-tropical orchids we find here the Oncidivm tribe; the
flowers of some of these species exhale a most sweet fragrance. Then there is
a plant called the Cypripedium, which represents a large brown spider on its
flower. It is an American species and the spider whose form it portrays is
said by Linnaeus "to be capable of destroying insects and even small hum-
ming-birds."
And now a word or two in a by-the-way manner upon the peculiarities of
orchideous plants. Artificially they are divisible into two classes the terres-
trial, which grow in or upon the soil; and the epiphytal, which grow upon the
trunks or branches of trees, rocks and stones. The latter are the most curious
from the fact that they derive their nourishment not from the soil, or as para-
sitical plants do from the sap of the trees on which they are found, but from the
air. They have been called from this peculiarity ' 'air plants" and present us with
a phenomenon which was inexplicable until the researches of Liebig proved
that plants, even growing in the soil, derive the principal portion of their solid
constituent, wood, from the atmosphere. They extend long whitish roots
abroad into the air as other plants do into the earth, by which they derive
their necessary food. It is an appearance well calculated to surprise the mind,
to see great masses of vegetation, as are some of the plants before us, feeding
and luxuriating in the atmosphere, the carbonic acid gas of which is their
chief support.
The general appearance and structure of orchids is a perfect anomaly. In
their native countries they are to be- found crawling over the trunks and
branches of forest trees, climbing to their topmost boughs and squatting just
where the limbs are united to the parent trunk, where they drop down clusters
of flowers, of which one is puzzled to say which is the most striking their
beauty, grotesque appearance, or exquisite fragrance. The flowers are and
have long been the puzzle and admiration of every botanist.
Not the least of the peculiarities of orchids lies in their disposition to
mimic many natural objects; there is scarcely any animate being to which the
flowers are not comparable. With the most artistic skill, to speak playfully, of
the most ludicrous character, they imitate insects, lizards, frogs, birds, ani-
mals and even the human "face and form divine." From the roof of the green-
houses they depend in rows; many of these plants are in bloom successively at
every period of the year.
And now let us take a look at some of the more conspicuous ornamental
plants found in this collection. Following Mr. Uihlein, who kindly consented
to act as our guide and expounder, our attention is particularly directed to the
following species:
*
o
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Arecn, a genus of elegant pinnate-leaved Palms; Aralia, one of the most
ornamental genus, is well adapted either for the conservatory or the open air
in summer; Alocasia, plants of great beauty with large sagittate leaves and
rich coloring; Begonias, which are not only remarkable for their free-flower-
ing qualities but also for the exquisite variegation of their foliage; Chamaedorea,
a genus of Palms with rich shining green and elegant pinnate leaves; Cocos,
graceful and shade-loving plants of a noble order, of which one species yields
the well known fruit the cocoa-nut; Carludovica, Palm-like plants, which
are often grown as Palms, but belong to the Cyclanth division of the Pandan-
ads; Corypha, a genus which contains but few species, but some of them pro-
duce very large fan-leaves. They are plants of extremely slow growth and
are characterized by tall, stout, cylindrical trunks; Crotons, are almost indis-
pensable for the decoration of greenhouses or public exhibition, as their habit
and color produce an effect, which is not produced by any other plant; Cycas,
very handsome plants, are closely related to the Conifers and Ferns and are
exceedingly useful for greenhouse decoration; Diffenbachia, a very handsome
plant; some species have yellowish green leaves from twelve to fifteen inches
in length, irregularly blotched with dark green and profusely spotted with
white; Dracaenas, plants that are amongst the most useful and beautiful of
fine-foliaged plants of graceful habit, with beautifully colored leaves; Kentia,
a genus of handsome, robust, greenhouse Palms; Latania, another handsome
family of Palms with large fan-like leaves; Maranta, a plant-family that have
their foliage more or less variegated, some of them in the most beautiful man-
ner; few plants qan equal them as objects of delight in a greenhouse collection;
Pandanus or Screw Pines, plants that show a very peculiar spiral arrange-
ment of their leaves and which in a state of nature grow twenty and thirty
feet high ; Phoenix, a genus of Palms and a very interesting and ornamental
plant; the flower spikes are produced from amongst the leaves and not below
them, male and female flowers being produced on separate plants; Ptychos-
perma, another exceedingly handsome genus of Palms, which in their natural
state grow from ten to eighty feet in height; Seaforthia, a most graceful
species of the Palm family and eminently well adapted for greenhouse decora-
tion; Tillandsia, a genus of Bromeliaceous plants, containing many species re-
markable for the beauty of their flowers; Anthurium, a plant highly valuable
as a foliage plant with large leaves of a bold and striking character and with
flowers of a brilliant shining scarlet color; Billbergia, a noble, and erect-grow-
ing species, and a very showy plant; Vriesia, an exceedingly handsome spec-
ies of dwarf habit of growth; Azalea, a superb genus of highly ornamental
plants, has become a great favorite and is much in favor as a decorative plant
for indoor use; Camellia, a magnificent genus of evergreen shrubby plant
with beautiful rose-like but odorless flowers; Erica, a very attractive green-
house plant, that is much admired; Rhododendron, a well known and deserv-
edly popular genus of many species. Besides those named there are numerous
other families of plants, as for instance: Carissa, Cycas, Euterpe, Aspidistra,
many beautiful Ferns, Selaginella, Peristeria, Aerides, Saccolabium, Vanda,
Angraecum, etc., all forming a most enjoyable group for the admiring eye of
the flower-loving laymen as well as for the botanist.
J. C. VAUGHAN'S GREEN HOUSES.
Among the prominent and successful commercial gardeners of this city
Mr. J. C. Vaughan stands in the front rank. His success may be attributed
mainly to the firm stand he has taken, not to offer anything to his customers
that is not meritorious or which is merely a fictitious and over-estimated cur-
iosity under the name of "Novelty."
The greenhouses of Mr. Vaughan are situated at Western Springs, a beau-
tiful suburb of Chicago, on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. They
contain over 35,000 feet of glass and hot beds and cold frames in proportion.
The frost-proof storage house for dormant Roses, Clematis, Dahlias and small
fruits forms a valuable feature for the careful handling of such plants. Over
this storage cellar are the Gladiolus and Tuberose bins and racks and the gen-
208 -
eral packing room for mail and express orders. The greenhouses, sixteen in
all, are devoted to the various plants as follows: Two large palm houses, one
being 24 x 120 feet and 13 feet high, containing many magnificent plants, which
will be grown for the World's Fair; one large house 18 x 150 feet, devoted to
the new French Canna's, among them some beautiful new, unnamed seedlings;
another house to Chrysanthemums, new and old, over 100 unnamed seedlings
being grown for a thorough test before sending out; also five houses used
exclusively for Hoses, two of them 18x120 feet; two houses for bedding plants;
a house for seed-testing; one for bulbs and tuberous rooted plants; two houses
for propagating-
The Chrysanthemums put on exhibition at the Flower-shows in Chicago
and other western cities were very creditable to the green-house department
of Mr. Vaughan's extensive business (he received eleven first premiums and
two second prizes out of 13 entries at the second-last Chicago Flower-show),
and they proved a delight to many of Mr. Vaughan's patrons, of which quite
a number were fortunate enough to witness the far better display made at the
greenhouses themselves. The central latitude provides a climate and seasons
for varieties of plants suitable to the great agricultural belt of the Northern
States, avoiding the small and inferior vegetables, flowers and grains from the
extreme North, as well as the late, large-growing and non-maturing varieties
of the South.
The main store at Nos. 146-148 West Washington Street in this city, occu-
pies three floors, each 40x185 feet, and two cellars, the latter for potatoes.
These storage, packing and shipping floors, with the facilities at Western
Springs for storing duplicate stocks of bulbs, dormant Roses, Clematis, etc,
are unexcelled for that purpose. The city store is in the center of the retail
business of Chicago, at No. 88 State Street and will be found most convenient
to all who make their purchases in person. At both stores can also be found
garden and farm tools and supplies in endless variety.
It may be mentioned in addition to the above, that Mr. Vaughan intends
to keep open nouse during this year. He is having printed a programme of
the Horticultural Department of the World's Fair, its plan, its rules, its special
features and seasonable shows in all departments. Part of this will appear in
his regular 1893 catalogue, additional in bulletins as needed. All regular cos-
turners and all new ones of this year will receive free the book for 1893 and
also the bulletins issued concerning the Fair,
For the couvenience of Eastern costumers, Mr. Vaughan has opened a
.store at No 12 Barclay Street. New York City, from where all seeds, bulbs,
tools and supplies offered in the catalogues can be secured.
* *
*
Besides the conservatories and green houses described in the foregoing there
are in this city a number of other handsome private collections of plants,
among which the collections of orchids in the conservatories of Wm. H. Chad-
wick, Potter Palmer, Dr. Clarke, G. Wittbold and others deserve special
mention. And after our stroll through these conservatories we have not seen
half of their contents; but after all how minute a portion do all of them, the
horticultural and floricultural show at the World's Fair and the richly stocked
palm-houses of our great parks included, constitute of that exhaustless treas-
ure which enriches our globe! We had it undoubtedly strongly impressed
upon our mind during the time that we held converse not with inanimate,
insensate creatures, but with beings which delighted in the tender care that
fed and fostered them, and exhibited their gratitude in language unintelligible
only to those who have no heart to open, and no ears to give to such things.
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THE QUEEN OF AQUATICS.
The public visiting Lincoln and Washington Parks owe a debt of gratitude
to the men standing at the head of floriculture in these parks for having in-
troduced to lovers of the beautiful in nature the queenly water-lily Victoria
Kegia, perhaps the most extraordinary of all floral productions. Lincoln Park
was the first in this city to successfully rear this lily of the Amazon from seeds
and Washington Park was not long in imitating the praiseworthy example
get by its lovely sister on the North Side. In both parks the lily-ponds now
form one of the chief attractions and there the great Victoria Kegia reigns
supreme over her numerous family relations of various complexions all of
them beautiful, however.
Although discovered by Professor Haenke,. a German botanist of great re-
pute, as early as 1801, it was not until 1887 that any historical sketch and des-
cription of the wonderful lily appeared. It was then again discovered, this
time by Sir Robert Schomburgh, whp transmitted the original drawings and a
description to the London Botanical Society.
Mr, Schomburgh says: "It was on the 1st of January, 1837, while con-
tending with the difficulties that nature interposed in different forms to stem
our progress up the river Berbice (lat, 4, 80' N., long. 52 W.), that we ar-
rived at a part where the river expanded and formed a currentless basin. Some
object on the southern extremity of this basin attracted my attention, and I
was unable to form an idea of what it could be; but, animating the crew to
increase the rate of their paddling, we soon came opposite the object which
had raised my curiosity, and, behold, a vegetable wonder! All calamities were
forgotten: I was a botanist, and felt myself rewarded! There were gigantic
leaves, five to six feet across, flat, with a broad rim; lighter green above, and
vivid crimson below, floating upon the water; while, in character with the
wonderful foliage, I saw luxuriant flowers, each consisting of numerous petals, .
passing, in alternate tints, from pure white to rose and pink. The smooth
water was covered with the blossoms, and as I rowed from one to the other,
I always found something new to admire. The flower-stalk is an inch thick
near the calyx, and studded with elastic prickles about three-quarters of an
inch long. When expanded, the four-leaved calyx measures a foot in diameter,
but is concealed by the expansion of the hundred-petalled corolla. This beauti-
ful flower, when it first unfolds, is white, with a pink centre; the color spreads
as the bloom increases in age, and, at a day old, the whole is rose-colored. As
if to add to the charm of this noble water-lily, it diffuses a sweet scent. As in
the case of others in the same tribe, the petals aud stamens pass gradually
into each other, and many petaloid leaves may be observed bearing vestiges of
an another. The seeds are numerous and imbedded in a spongy substance.
Ascending the river we found this plant frequently; and the higher we ad-
vanced, the more gigantic did the specimens become; one leaf we measured
was 6 feet 5 inches in diameter, the rim 5^ inches high and the flowers 1^ feet
across."
When the great American water-lily became known in Europe, a strong
desire to obtain its introduction to that country in a living state soon evinced
itself. After a series of futile attempts, the queen of all the lilies was success-
fully introduced into the Exotic Aquarium at Kew in England. A number of
healthy plants being raised, one of them was sent to the gardens at Chats-
worth, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire; and on the 1st of November, 1849, a
flower appeared, indicating a condition of advancement beyond what had been
attained by any of the other- plants at Kew or elsewhere.
212
Professor Lindley thus described the splendid blossom: The flower itself ,
when it first opens, resembles the white water-lily, of a dazzling white, with
its fine leathery petals, forming a goblet of the most elegant proportions; but
as the day advances it gradually expands till it becomes nearly flat; towards
evening a faint blush becomes visible in the centre, the petals fall back more
and more, and at last, about six o'clock, a sudden change occurs; in a few
minutes the petals arrange themselves in the form of a snow-white hemisphere,
whose edge reposes on the water, and the centre rises majestically at the sum-
mit, producing a diadem of rosy points. It then constitutes one of the most
elegant objects in nature. Shortly after, the expansion of the central parts
proceeding, these points fall back, the stamens unfold in an interior coronet,
the stigmas are laid bare, a grateful perfume arises in the air, and the great
object of the flower the fertilization of the seed is accomplished. Then
fold inwards the petals, the flower closes, the fairest of vegetable textures be-
comes wrinkled, decay begins, and the flower-stalk withdraws itself beneath
the water, as if to veil the progress of corruption. But out of this decay arises
a new living body; the fruit, curved downward, swells rapidly and in a short
time a prickly seed-vessel is observed concealed beneath the floating leaves."
The above descriptions of this wonderful plant will, we think, greatly as-
sist those, who come to admire the Victoria Regia in our parks and are unac-
quainted with the habits, history and inner life of this vegetable wonder, to
get a pretty accurate conception of this interesting object. In addition to all
this it may be mentioned that the large, salvor-shaped leaves of circular form
are capable of supporting the weight of a child from 10 to 12 years of age
standing on a board laid across so as to obtain an even balance.
There is no doubt that the head gardeners of both the parks mentioned
will make a special effort during the present World's Fair-year to have the
Victoria Regia on exhibition in its most perfect and interesting form, so as to
be an object of genuine delight to the eye of the multitudes that will throng
around the lily-ponds.
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FLORICULTURE AT THE WORLD'S
COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.
With the steady march of progress and notably by the aid of the Society
'of, American Florists, and 965 state and local societies and Florists' clubs
during the past six years, by the aid of the press, by the aid of exhibitions
and by the education which has naturally been obtained from the sources
mentioned, the advance of floriculture is one of the wonders of the time.
From a commercial standpoint, the U. 8. Census report of commercial
floriculture in a digest, is as follows: "In the United States there were
4,659 floral establishments in the census year, 312 of which were owned and
conducted by women. The total feet of glass in use in all the establishments
was 38,823,247, and the establishments, including fixtures and heating appa-
ratus, were valued at $28,355,722.43. The value of tools and implements used
was $1,587,693 93. 'There were employed 16,847 men and 1,958 women, the
combined annual wages amounting to $8,483,657. Fuel cost was $1,160,152.66.
Three million, two hundred and forty-five thousand six hundred wholesale,
and 17,630 094 retail catalogues are annually issued, while $767,438.21 was
paid for postage. $1,161,168.31 for advertising, $354,221.56 for freight, and
#554,390.55 for express bills.
The total products were 49,056 253 roses, 38,380,872 hardy plants and
shrubs, and 152,835,292 of all other plants, the value of which was $12,036,-
477.76, and cut flowers to the amount of $14,175,328.01 were reported as
sold. Mr. John Thorpe, chief of the department of floriculture at the
World's Fair, has this to say in reference to the floriculture to be exhibited
at the Exposition: ' The costliest ideas and the very highest aims are com-
patible only with the advancement of the profession. Small exhibits can
not be expected to be effective. Groups of plants of all kinds will not be
shown simply by the hundreds, but in thousands and tens of thousands.
The general massing of the plants will be on such a scale as to astonish
even those who are acquainted with what has been accomplished. As a
matter of fact, add one that is conceded by those best able to judge, the
parks of Chicago have this moment the finest displays of floriculture adorn-
ments ot all the cities in the world. The brilliant and effective coloring to
be seen in the designs at Washington Park and the superior water lily
display at Lincoln Park, together with the fine displays at the other
parks, have gladdened the hearts and called forth the admiration of hun-
dreds of thousands, remembering what Chicago has, and is now doing for
floriculture in her parks.
The floricultunil department of the World's Fair must outstrip all pre-
vious attempts in all and everyone <>f its branches, even to surpassing the
magnificent work here mentioned. This can only be obtained by a determi-
nation to eclipse all previous efforts. Not one moment must be given to
looking backward. There is no time to look backward. In that mag-
nificent building, Horticultural Hall, will be found space enough to
make displays of nearly all exhibits requiring protection. The building is
1,000 feet long with an extreme width of 286 feet. The plan is a central
pavilion with two end pavilions each connected to the center pavilion by
front and rear curtains, forming two interior courts, each 88 by 270 feet.
These courts are beautifully decorated in color and planted with orna-
mental shrubs and flowers. The center pavilion is roofed by a crystal
dome 137 feet in diameter and 113 feet high, under which will be exhibited the
8
216
tallest palms, bamboos and tree ferns that can be procured. There is a
gallery in each of the pavilions. The galleries of the end-pavilions are de-
signed for cafes, the situation and the surroundings being particularly well
adapted to recreation and refreshment. The cafes are surrounded by an
arcade on three sides, from which charming views of the ground can be
obtained. Of various tropical plants there will be large groups of orchids,
palms, ferns, and in fact nearly every known decorative species and variety.
Outdoor floriculture will be on such a scale of magnificence as to eclipse
all previous efforts, beginning with the showy tulips and hyacinths, ending
with chrysanthemums and cosmos. Floriculture must be representative in
every sense of the word. However much the cut flowers of roses, carnations,
and chrysanthemums are admired and though large numbers of them are
produced, they but very imperfectly represent floriculture. Plants of all
kinds must oe grown and cared for. We should not only have a large
variety of plants and flowers for the decoration of dwellings and the adorn-
ment of greenhouses, but every plant suitable for the decoration of lawns
and gardens. For example, all bulbous plants, all herbaceous plants, and
the many beautiful annuals and bienniels, such as are cheaply obtained and
easily grown, must have all the encouragement possible at the World's
Columbian Exposition. Let us do everything on a scale equal to the mag-
nitude of the undertaking.
I predict that the World's Columbian Exposition will advance floricul-
ture 25 years, and that in ten years from now, I venture to say, that Chicago
will come pretty near being the head center of the business."
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EDWARD S. DREYER.
MK. EDWARD S. DREYER, whose handsome residence is shown on page
103 is one of the most popular and successful business men of Chicago. Be
sides conducting with Mr. Robert Berger, his amiable partner, the well known
banking house of E. S. Dreyer & Co., he was also president of the real estate
board of this city, is treasurer of the state private bank association, director anil
treasurer of Chicago Heights, and was appointed by Mayor Washburne one of
the railroad terminal commissioners. He belongs to the public spirited men,
who helped to build up the German Old People's Home ( Altenheim), the Schiller
and Grant monuments in Lincoln Park, the Auditorium, Schiller Theatre, Ger-
mania Club building, etc.
Mr. Dreyer is a native of Buckeburg, in Schaumburg-Lippe, Germany,
where he was born, August 5, 1844. He was educated in the city of Hameln
in Hanover, after which he learned the trade of carriage trimmer. Both of
his parents having died when he was yet a child, he went to live with his near-
est relatives until he had attained the age of fifteen years. After finishing his
schooling he determined to change both his location and his business and ac-
cordingly crossed the ocean to America, landing in New York in June, 1864.
Upon landing he came directly to Chicago, where he has remained up to the
present hour. When he had learned the language of this country and had ac-
quired an insight into the rights and duties of citizenship he entered the em-
ploy of Knauer Brothers, real estate dealers, in whose service he remained
until January 1, 1870, when, as a reward of merit, he became a member of the
firm.
In February, 1873, he withdrew from the partnership and established a
real estate business of his own under the name of E. S. Dreyer & Company,
which title has been used continuously down to the present time. His office
was then located at 72 Dearborn Street, from where it was removed in 1875 to
98 Dearborn Street. The rapid growth of his business soon made it necessary
again to remove to more commodious quarters, whereupon he located at 88
"Washington Street, where he remained until 1878, when he occupied his pres-
ent spacious rooms at the northeast corner of Dearborn and Washington
Streets. He grew steadily and rapidly in wealth and in popular favor and
soon his popularity was not exceeded by that of any other real estate dealer or
banker in the city. From the time he began, back in 1873, down to the pres-
ent day, he has invested over $100,000,000, a sum so vast that its magnitude
can hardly be comprehended.
So rapidly had Mr. Dreyer amassed money, that in 1877, he founded his
mortgage banking business and conducted it in conjunction with his real estate
dealings. From 1875 to 1891, Mr. Edward Koch was his business partner, and
in 1878 Mr. Robert Berger was also admitted to the partnership and is thus
associated at the present time.
Since the great lire in 1871, this firm has built fully two hundred houses
in all portions of the city. Mr. Dreyer is a strong democrat and in December
1884 was chosen collector of North Chicago out of thirty-two candidates for
the position. In 1888 he was elected school treasurer of Lake View. He is a
member of the County Board of Education and a Director of the Public Lib-
rary.
Mr. Dreyer came to this city poor and friendless; but he was not afraid to
work, and where is the German that is? In less than a quarter of a century
he lias accumulated a large fortune and won an enviable reputation for integ-
rity, honesty and benevolence. His wife was formerly Miss Augusta Bill-
igmann, a native of Keokuk, Iowa, who has presented him with four chil-
dren; Addie, Lottie, Edward S. Jr. and Florence.
220
THEO. A, KOCHS.
In illustrating the rapid growth of the City- of Chicago and its wonderful
development, one of the best examples is the establishment of Theo A. Kochs,
manufacturer of Barbers' Supplies, at 158 170 Wells Street. Twenty years
ago this business was begun at 217 Fifth Aye. and Mr. Kochs supplied the
local barbers with such goods as are needed in
this business, but his reputation soon began to
spread into adjoining towns and cities and the
business rapidly increased. Gradually the whole
of the building at 217 Fifth Ave. was occupied
and factory space was rented upon the West Side,
but the business continued to grow and in 1883
Mr. Kochs found it necessary to erect a building
at 158-160 Wells St., into which the entire busi-
ness, office, store and factory was moved. At
the time it seemed that the building would be
large enough to meet all requirements, but in
1885 it was necessary to add another story and
in 1887 the lot adjoining was built upon, so that
the capacity was almost doubled. But even this
was not sufficient and in 1890 the building was
again enlarged so that now it occupies a frontage
of 148 feet on Wells Street and 110 feet on Erie
Street, making a total floor space of almost two
acres.
In this vast establishment about 250 men are
employed in the manufacture of Barbers' Chairs
and Furniture, Barbers' Poles, 1 'ecorated Shaving
Mugs, Cosmetics and Perfumery of all descriptions, and, in fact, everything that
is required in a modern barber shop. These goods are shipped to all parts of
the United States, from Maine to California, to Canada, Mexico, England,
Australia and South America, and the establishment that was born twenty
years ago now supplies the barbers in every corner of the civilized world.
1873.
1893.
221
JOHN M. SMYTH BUILDING.
John M. Smyth's new building, to replace that destroyed by fire in April
1891, was begun and completed within a space of about five months. It is
one of the finest blocks on the west side, being eight stories in height, having
a frontage of 205 feet on Madison street and a depth of 180 feet, and costing
$350,000. It is of the so-called, slow- burning mill construction, iron columns
and wood being used in the interior and buff Bedford stone and brick for the
exterior walls. Two massive arches form the entrance. The store front is
provided with the largest plate glass windows in Chicago, each pane being
196 by 120 inches in size. Handsome pillars separate the windows. The
main show-room is 120 by 125 feet in area, and the central shipping court,
which has a glass, iron-trussed roof, is 55 by 118 feet. Two wings, each 40
by 180 feet, extend back from the main room. Four freight elevators are
provided, as well as a number of passenger elevators, run by six engines of
0-horse power. Three thousand, six hundred incandescent electric lights,
250 arc lights and 1,800 gas-jets furnish brillant illumination for every part of
the building. Four broad stairways connect the various floors. The entire
structure, having a total floor area of 279,000 square feet or six and one-fourth
acres, is used for the storing, finishing and uppholstering display and sale of
furniture. It is located at 150-166 West Madison street.
Business Metices.
THE GREAT
GERMAN DAILY,
WEEKLY AND
SUNDAY
NEWSPAPER.
It is the leading and most influential German
Newspaper west of New York City.
With Its LARGE AND RAPIDLY INCREASING CIRCULATION
and great popularity it long since has become a highly
valuable and desirable
MEDIUM FOR ADVERTISING.
It not only reaches the large German population of this
City and County, but has readers in every State and Terri-
tory of the Union, and a large list outside of the United
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STARTS ZEITUNG BUILDING,
Northeast Cor, Washington Street and Fifth Avenue,
CHICAGO.
TELEPHONE 635
225
E. 8. DREYER. ROBERT BERGER.
EX S. DREYER & Co.,
BANKERS,
REAL ESTATE AND LOANS.
N. E. Cor. Dearborn and Washington Sts.,
Telephone 2645. W1J.1OAC3O.
FRKD. S. JAMES. (JEO. W. BLOSSOM.
WM. D. MARSH. Jos. S. PHILLIPS.
FRED. S. JAMES & Co.,
174 LA SALLE STREET,
Telephone No. 2O4. CHICAGO.
IFOIR,:
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226
115 DEARBORN STREET, CHICAGO.
GEORGE SCHNEIDER, President. WM. A. HAMMOND, Cashier.
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PAID-UP CAPITAL $1,000,000
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756* Dearborn. Street,
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WILLIAM DICKINSON COURTLANDT S. DIXON JEROME A. KING
JOHN W. DICKINSON IRAC. HUTCHINSON
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no LASALLE STREET.
After May ist, 1893, Security Building,
Cor. Madison and Fifth Ave.
CAPITAL,
SURPLUS,
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$500,600.
150,000.
B. LOEWENTHAL, PRESIDENT.
COURSES OF FOUR MONTHS.
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AND SEPTEMBER 1st.
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ABENDPOST.
The GREAT
GERMAN DAILY.
"Want Ads." are a specialty of the "Abendpost." It has more of this
class of advertisements than all the other German newspapers of
Chicago combined, or than any other German paper outside of New
York. This is the most convincing proof of the great popularity
and circulation of the "Abendpost." Eighty ' branch advertising
agencies throughout the United States.
Main office, 2 03 FIFTH AVENUE,
ABENDPOST BUILDING.
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229
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BY RECORDING YOUR NUMBER WITH THE
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JUSTUS M. KRAUS, Vice President and Gen. Supt.
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Recommends itself to everybody. Because in case of injury,
it informs your friends as soon as notified and sends you to
address recorded, with an attendant in a conveyance, without
cost to you.
Because in case of death it embalms the body, taking
charge of same until relieved by friends.
Everybody recorded is furnished with a neat metal badge,
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ient place about the body. In a book of Record, opposite the
number is the name, address and full description of the party
recorded, also the party to be notified.
COSTING BUT A TRIFLE,
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR.
Chicago Board of Reference By Permission:
Hon. Hempstead Washburne, Mayor.
Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch,
Hon. John T. Finnerty, M. C. Juljus
J. A. Sexton, Postmaster.
Chas. Kern, County Treasurer.
R. W. Mcdlaughry, Chief of Police.
John D. Shea, Chief of Detectives.
K. S. Dreyer, Banker.
F. H. Cooper (Siegel, Cooper & O.)
Leo Austrian, Furniture Manufacturer.
PAUL J HAUSWIRTH,
Successor to
CHARLES REISSIG,
FLrQRIST
SIS
AUDITORIUM BUILDING,
CHICAGO.
Estimates on Decorations Cheerfully Furnished.
TELEPHONE 2149.
0. A. TUBNBULL. Established 18C8. E. P. CULLEBTON.
TURNBULL & CULLERTON,
General Roofers
Gypsumineral
Cement . . .
Roofing ^
GUARANTEED 1O YEARS.
OFFICE,-
Agents Peninsular Metal Lath.
195 LA SALLE STREET.
Yards: 16th St. and Blue Island Avenue,
C., B. & Q. Ry. Tracks.
ll Kinds of Gravel Composition and
Metal Roofing Repairing and Re-
coating a Specialty ^r TEEPHONE sis.
REGISTER.
A.
Abrahams, Henry -. 147
Abt, Peter 151
Adams, David 147
Adams, McGregor J 31
Amberg, Franz 24, 78 81
Anderson, Berndt 176
Anderson, John 176
Anderson, Niles 24 27
Angelsberg, M. N .135
Apple, Henry 151
Armstrong, John M 15 16, 19
Arnold, J 143
Arnold, J. P 78
Artz, B 151
Austin, H. W 164
Austrian, Falk 147
B.
Babka, Jos 180
Baier, A 143
Baker, S. L 73
Balatka. Hans 47
Bates, Eli 23 27
Bauer, Aug 155
Bauer, August 24
Baynes, John . . . . ; 139
Becker, Chas 144
Beckwith, Judge 43, 156
Becvar, Jos 180
Benson, C. L 176
Berger, Robert 217
Bernard, F. H. Dr 78
Best, Wm 59
Biehl, L 140
Birkeland. J. S 175
Blair, C. J 39
Blaney, J. C., Dr 123
Blatter, F 143
Blodgeit, II. W 131
Bodenschatz 168
Bogue. Geo. M 151
Bohemian Free Thinkers 179
Bowen, C. T 40,44
Boyle, Amelia C 143
Bradley. Win. H 19
Bradwell, J. B 131
Branstad, L 176
Brenan, Thos 136
Brenock, John 68, 71, 72
Brick, Chr 143
BrockwHy, Adelheid 155
Bross, Wm 40
Brusewitz, H. P 176
Bryan, Daniel Page 120
Bryan, Thomas B 120
Buehler, John 68, 71, 78, 167, 168
Burcky, David 151
Burkhardt, Henry S 72
Burkhardt & Son 143
Busch, J. B 143
C.
Campbell, James 151
Carlson, C. O 24
Carlson, L 176
Carpenter, Benj , 15, 16
Carter, Consider 71
Carver, Benj 151
Chadband, W 128, 131
Chadwick, Wm. H 208
Chaiser, Andrew 24
Charles, Jos 28
Chicago Dregding & Dock Co 36
Clark, David W 72
Clark, John V. Jr 39
Cleveland, H. W. S 44
Clussmann, Werner 168
Cole, Cyrus E 151
Cole, David 60
Cook, Burton C 151
Cooley, H. H 151
Cornell, Paul 40, 44, 151
Cossmann, M 143
Cottle, W. P 155
Cragin.E. F 28
Cramer, Cale 151
Cregier, DeWitt C 176
Cremer, Anton 143
Cross, Clarence 164
Cudahy, John 136
Cullom.S. M 68
Culver, B. F 19
Cunningham, Robt 151
Cunningham, Thos F 28
Demmler, Franz 24
Detmer, Anton 143
232
Devine, Wm. M. 136
DeVry, Hermann 24
Dewes.F.J 78,81
Dietzsch, Emil 24
Diversy, Michael 143
Dohl, J. G 144
Donnersberger, Jos 59
Dore, John C 40
Drake, Prank 151
Drechsler, A 144
Dreyer, Augusta Mrs 217
Dreyer, Edward S 24, 28, 31, 217
Dubuis, O. F 71
Dunn, F.K '..151
E.
Eastman, Frank 40
Eckart, Geo 164
Egan, Wm. B., Dr 40
Ehrhorn, G 81
Eizner, John 98
Eklund, Chas 24
Ellsworth, J. W 59
Enander, John A 24
Engelsmann, F 143
Ernst, Jos. E 115
Eskilson, John 146
F.
Farwell, C. B 28
Farwell, Marcus A 148, 151
Faulhaber, John M 168
Feindt, Wm 168
Ferber, Johann 155
Fiedler 144
Fischer, Jacob 168
Fischer, Peter, Rev 155
FitzSimons, Charles. . .35, 36, 47, 176
Flannigan, J 156
Forrest, J. K. C 40
Foster, Frank J 47
Frank, Jos 24
Freeman, S. A 27,
Friesleben, Catharine 151
Froehlich, Jacques 168
Fncik, Frank 180
Fuller, H. W 40
G.
Gabrielson, G 176
Gage, Geo. W 44, 47
Gage, J. N , 151
Gall, L. G.. 151
Gauss, B. F. L 78, 106
Geilfuss, Aus: 151
Geist, C. F..7 168
German Press Club 78
Getty, Henry H 120
Gieliske, C 151
Gilpin, Henry D 73
Gindele, John-G 16
Glogauer, Fritz 78
Goldmann, Sam 147
Goldstein, Isaac 147
Goldstein, P 147
Goldzier, Julius 78
Goodman, Dan'l 151
Goodrich, A 151
Goodrich, Grant 15
Goodspead, E. J 155
Gottfried M 168
Gottsellig, Therese 155
Goudy, Wm. C 16, 39
Grannie, W. C. D 151
Grant, Mrs 28
Grant Monument 27
Grant, Ulysses Jr 28
Green Dredging Company 36
Greenebaum, Henry 60, 68, 78, 81
Gresham, Walter Q 27
Grommes, Jacob 28
Gross, Jacob 81
Grosse, John 28
Guenther, Theo 168
Gunderson, S. T 176
Guth, H 151
H.
Haase's Park 163
Haeberle, A.T 144
Haedicke, Paul 78
Haerting, Carl 24, 78
Hagemann, A 143
Halik, St. J 180
Hallberg, L. G 24
Hallermann, Amanda 144
Hallermann, Wm 144
Hancock, Wm. S 151
Hanke, J 168
Harmon, H. W 59
Harms, H. Dr 78
Harper, Wm. H 151
Harrison, Carter H 23
Harvey, J. D 28
Haunschild, Jos 143
Hayes, S. S 40, 64, 73
Healy, Geo. P,A 120
Hechinger, Catherine 143
Heinzmann, Geo 81
Heiss, C. E 24
Heissler, Jacob 168
Hellwig, Wilhelmine 1 68
Henius, Max Dr 78, 81
Henne, Phil 24
Henrotin, C 28
Herting, John 143
Hesing, A. C 19, 20, 24, 78, 81
Hesing, Louise Mrs 143
Hesing, Washington 176
Hess, Frank 180
Hesselroth Lawrence 24, 27*
Heuer, August 39
Heywood, P. P 28
Hickling, Wm 151
233
Hildenbeutel, L 144
Hitt, Isaac R 60
Hjortsberg, Max 20
Hjortsdahl, F 176
Hoerber, John L 1 68
Hoermann, Fred ] 44
Hoffmann & Co 78
Hogan, John Mrs 136
Hogan, Martin 156
Hohner, Johanna 168
Holden, Chas. C. P 10, 60, 68
Holinger, Arnold 24
Holmes, Israel 151
Honore, H.H 40
Hooley, Richard M 136
Hora, Jos 180
Hoyne, Henry 151
Hoyne, Thomas 40, 43
Huck, Louis 24, 120
Humboldt Celebration Club 78
Humboldt Monument 78
Hurlbut, J. H 164
Hurlbut, 8. E 164
Hussander, L. F 27
I.
Ine, Leopold 180
J.
Jacob, Emma W 151
Jacobson, A 176
Jahncke, A. J. W 151
Janke, John 144
Jampolis, Marcus 147
Jansen, Geo 168
Janssen, Theo 78
Jennings, John D 40
Jernberg, August 24
Jewett, S. N 28
Johnson, A. E 24
Johnson, A. P 176
Johnson, Alex. J 24
Johnson, Jacob 176
Johnson, Nelson 82
Johnson, W. T 28
Johnston, Samuel 31
Johnston, W. S 73
Jones, William 15
Junker, Heinrich 144
K.
Kadish, L. J 20
Kales, Francis 19
Kanst, Fred 47, 52, 55
Karls, Theo 24
Karnatz, F. H 77
Kauffert,C.F 151
Kayler, Ben j 1 55
Keller, Aug 151
Kern, Chas 28
Kettelstrings. Jos 164
Klnsella,D. P 139
Kirk, Chas. S 39
Klacel, Ladirnir Prof 180
Klein, Henry 155
Kleiner, Paul 151
Knauer Bros 217
Koch, Edward 78
Kochs, Theo. A 218
Koehler, Peter 168
Kohlsaat, C. C 72
Kostner, Jos ! ... 180
Kress, Geo 151
Kublank, F 151
Kummer, J 168
L.
Lackner, Francis 24
Lafrentz, H. N 168
Langeloth, M 168
Larson, Frithjof Dr 27
La Salle Monument 31
Lasman, Dora 144
Lathrop, Bryan 1 20
Lawrence, Frank J 72
Lawson, Iver 16, 115
Lefens, T. J 24, 28, 168
Lehrkamp, Louise 151
Leicht, Andrew C 24
Leiendecker, N 143
Leiendecker, L. P 143
Letz, Fred 16
Lewis, H.F 131
Lincoln Monument 27
Lindblom, Robert 24, 27, 28
Lindgren, Richard 27
Lindskog, H. Rev 27
Lindstrand, F. A 24
Lingenberg, John 168
Lannaeus Monument Ass 24
Lipe, Clark 60,68.
Loewenthal, B 68. 72
Long, Eugene C 131
Long, James 15
Lott, E. R 168
Ludlam, J. W. Dr 12
Lynch, Thomas 136
McAuley, J. T 28
McAvoy, John 136
McAvoy, John H 151
McCagg, E. B 19,40
McChesney, R 68
McCrea, S. H 68, 71
McDonald, P. C 156
McGrath, P. J .*. 72
McKindley, James 151
McLaughlin. Jos 139
Maas, Frederick 168
Maas, Philip 168
Madlener, Fridolin 24
Manierre, George 15
Marks H. L ". 147
234
Mason, Mead 151
Matas, Vaclav. . .., 180
Maurer, Minna 168
Mayer, Frank 143
Mayer, Leopold 24
Michelsen, H 176
Millard, A. C 68
Miller, Carl 156
Mineral Wells 101
Mitchell, Wm. H 120
Miville, C. D 143
Moeller, C. 24
Molitor, Jos 179
Morgan, Wm 155
Mueller, Bernard 143
Mueller, John B 168
Mulligan, Col 135
Munson, Francis 43
Murphy, Phil. H ' 136
Muus, J.F. A 68
N.
Neiglick, P. N.- 147
Nelson, Andrew 19
Nettelhorst, Louis 24
New, Marie 143
Newberry, Walter L 15
Newman, Bishop 28
Newman, Wm H 151
Nickerson, S. M 19, 31
Noe, 8. R 151
o.
Oberg, Conrad 144
Oehmich, H J 151
Oesterreicher, Abraham 147
Ogden, Wm. B 1VO
Oleson, John 176
Olmsted, Fred. Law 40, 44
Olson, Jons 176
O'Neill, Chas. J 136
P.
Palmer, Potter 28. 31
Palmer, Potter, Mrs 28, 208
Patterson, Thos. E 120
Pauly, Wm 156
Peck, Ferd 176
Perkins, N. C 40
Peterson, C. F 24, 27
Peterson, P. S 24, 187, 188
Peterson, Wm. A 187
Pettigrew, J. A 35
Phillips, H.W 151
Pierce, J. Irving 40
Pieser, Jacob 147
Pitkin, E. H 164
Plautz, C. Hermann 78
Pottgieser, Giesbert 151
Proudfoot, Alderman 16
Pruessing, George 24
R. /
Rahlfs, Geo 68, 71, 72, 82
Kaimburg, A 156
Rapp, W 23
Rauch G. H. Dr 48
Raymond, Benj. W 15
Raymond, S. P 28
Rebisso, Louis F 28, 31
Reed, Alexander 148
Rehm , Jacob 19, 20
Reidi, Michael : 155
Reuter Statue 81
Rexford, N. B 155
Reynolds, Jas. L 120
Richolson, B. F 176
Righeimer, N 168
Robinson, C. H 164
Robinson, Lena 151
Roeder, John C > 143
Rohn, Wm 144
Roos,B. L 168
Root, Jas. P 40
Rose, Edward 28, 78
Rosenfeld, Morris 147
Rosenthal, Julius 23, 24, 78
Rozet, Geo. H 28
Rubens, Harry 24, 78
Ruhl, Moses 147
Runyan, E. F 60, 68
Russell, Martin J 59
Ryerson, Martin A.-. 120
Ryerson Monument 31
Rylander, Victor 24
S.
Sawyer, Sidney 120
Scammon, J. Y 40
Schiller Monument 23
Schillo, Anton 143
Schimpfermann, W. H 151
Schlytern, C. E 176
Schmidt, Christian 151
Schmidt, George 28
Schmidt, J. H 168
Schoenewald, J 143
Schoenhofen, Peter 120
Schoeninger, Adolph 200. 203
Schoeninaer, Joseph 24
Scholer, F 143
Schrade, Geo 167, 168
Schramm, F 144
Schroeder, Louise & Wm 168
Schuerle, A 168
Schuettler, Peter 68
Schulz, M . . 168
Schultz, Henry 144
Schweinfurth, G 168
Schweisthal, Michael 28
Scott, G. H 128, 131
Seaman, Herman 147
Seiflert, Rudolph Dr 24
Seipp, Conrad 151
Seipp, Wm. C 168
Sell, John 82
Selz, Morris 28
Senff, F. L 78
Sexton, P. J 130
Seyfried, U 168
Shakespeare Monument 31
Shay, Jas 156
Sheldon, Edwin H 120
Sheppard, H. H 148, 151
Sherman, John B f>9
Shipley, J. C 98
Sidway, L. B 40, 44
Siebel, J. E. Prof 101
Sieben, Mich 143
Simon, Andreas 78
Simonds, O. C 120
Sidelar, Joseph 180
Skinner, Mark 15
Sladek, Marie 143
Small, Albion W 81
Smejkal, Jos. A 180
Smith, Geo.W 40
Smith, Philander 1(>4
Smyth, John M 219
Snell, A. J 128
Snow, W. B 186
Solomon, Heiman 147
Sommer, Ludwig 144
Sorgenfrei, F 151
Spence, Henry 151
Spiegel. M. M 147
Spofford, G W 98
Sprengel, C 144
St. Gaudens, Augustus 23 27
St. George, A 78
Stabford, A 176
Stanford, Geo. W 60 68
Stangeland, O. L 176
Stanley, P. E 28
Steiger, G 151
Stein, Chas 151
Stensland, Paul O 116
Stern, Max 24
Stieglitz, Gustav 24
Stockton, Jos. . 19 81
Strauch, Adolph 127, 148
Streming, John 144
Stromback, Chas 23, 27 .31, 35
Strong, Wm. E 31
Stuckart, Conrad 151
Suddard, Thos. J 71
Sullivan, J. B 28
Sundelius, P. A 27
Svenson, Gustav 27
Svobodna, Obec 17!)
Swabian Society 23
T.
Talcott, Mancel Mrs 82
Tarnow.G 168
Taylor, Edw. S 28,31,39
Tegtmeyer. Christopher 72
Tempel, John 143
Tennie, Anton 155
Tessmann, Chas 151
Thielemann's Summer Resort 27
Thomas, Peter 155
Thompson, Harvey L 71, 72, 81
Thornton, David 136
Thorpe, John 215
Thorsen, S. D 176
Towner, Henry 28
Tree, Lambert 31
Trogg, John 168
Troost Bros 168
Tully, John D .136
Turner, J. B 19
Turner, S. M. T 151
Turner, Wm. H 181
Turner, V. C 16
U.
Uhlich, Karl 155
Uihlein, Edward 78, 164, 203, 204
Ullmann, Nellie M 151
Underberg M 168
V.
Vaesgen, Isabella 155
Van Bokellen 151
Vanderbelt, H 155
Van H. Higgins 181
VanHoutin, Frank 151
Vaughan, J. C 207, 208
Vidman, O. F 24
Voss, Arno 168
W.
Wacker, Chas. H 28
Wacker Monument 143
Wadlow, R. A 39
Wagner, Albert 143
Wagner, Peter 143
Waitzel, Isaac 147
Waller, R, A ....39
Wallis, Thos 131
Walsh John R 59
Wampold, Louis 28
Washburne, Hempstead 24 28, 81
Weinhardt, Hermann 78 81
Weinhardt, Martha 81
Weiss, Geo. A 24
Wenter, Frank 24
Wentworth, John 128
Werkmeister, J 151
Wessendorf, John 155
Whaples, Reuben 164
Whitehouse F. M 31
Wicker, Alderman 115
Widestrand, Louis 27
Wieland, Henry 28
Wiemann, H 168
Wilcox, S. N 68, 71, 72
236
Wild, Theo. Dr 168
Wilken, Emil 68
Williams, Norman 28, 31, 40
Wilson, John M 40, 44
Winston, F. H 19
Wischemeyer, Henry 143, 152
Wischemeyer, Maria 152
Wittbold, G 208
Wolff, Ludwig 24, 78
Wolford, J. A 136
Wood, E. E 68
Woodard, Willard 68, 71, 115
Woodman, Alderman 16
Y.
Yerkes, Chas. T 20, 98
z.
Zapel, Carl 82
Zdrubek, Frank B 179
Zeller, J. E. C 151
Zender, John 143
Zoellner. Augusta 168
Zulfer,A 143
