1844-1871—Chicago’s City Directories
1872-1879—Chicago’s City Directories
1880-1889—Chicago’s City Directories
Chicago Tribune, January 23, 1898
THE twentieth century historian who will write the history of Chicago will find its city directories invaluable repositories of information. This will appear strange to many, but it is not stranger than the fact that the first great national directory and census of England, the “Domesday Book,” is one of the greatest historical documents in existence, or the fact that the account books of monasteries and cloisters have n proven to be mines of wealth to the historians of old world cities.
It is the obvious facts that escape the newspaper writer and annalist which often most interest the historian, and it is just these that the city directories, most stupid of all books, of reference, are apt to contain.
The old directories tell not only of those who have lived in Chicago, their places of residence and business and what they did, but in the registers on their advertising pages they present a terse history of the municipal government from year to year, the rise of miscellaneous societies, the extension of railways, the opening of streets, and the laying out of parks, and, in a word, give an epitome of municipal progress in every direction.
The most patent fact the directory files teach is the growth of population. Chicago’s first directory contained six pages of names in single columns, about 450 in all. The last issue from the Lakeside press is a volume of 2,692 pages and contains by close calculation 556,400 names. Less than two of the 2,140 triple column pages in the 1897 directory that are devoted to names would suffice in reproducing the first directory word for word. Compared to the bulky volume of 1897 the first city address book would be less than an inch thick, an inch wide, and two inches long. Represented along with connecting links from other years they are an impressive object lesson in municipal expansion. At times the rivalry of publishers caused the list of names to be unruly swelled, but the onward movement was in the main regular and natural.
Fergus’ First Directory.
The first Chicago Directory was an appendix to the city ordinances, published in pamphlet form by Robert Fergus in 1839. The directory was a happy accident. Mr. Fergus found there were going to be six blank pages left, and concluded to fill them in with the names of business-men. He set them up without copy just as they occurred and were suggested to him. The names were not even in strict alphabetical order, the compiler, editor, typesetter, and proofreader combined being satisfied to have the initial letters in proper sequence,
Joseph Jefferson appears in this directory as comedian and member of the firm of Jefferson & McKenzie, managers of the Chicago Theater, 8 and 10 Dearborn street. Frt Dearborn garrison was under the command of Captain Louis T. Jamieson. Fernando Jones is set down as a clerk for Thomas Church. Norman B. Judd had a law office at 105 Lake street. Grant Goodrich, George and A. O. Beaumont, and Mark Skinner being in the same building. A. G. Burley, crockery, 161 Lake street, is another entry every one would observe.
This directory had a circulation of 100 copies, fifty being taken by the city for $25 and fifty being sold privately. Five hundred copies remain unsold. However, in 1876 the first first directory was reprinted on nine pages of the Lakeside Directory. Henry H. Hurlbut, Esq., supplying the copy. In the same year Robert Fergus published an enlargement of the work, making it embrace all the business-men he and other old-timers could recollect.
Walter Kimball, Probate Judge, South Water and Clark streets; John R. Mills, clerk for Matthew Laflin, the merchant; Walter L. Newberry, lawyer and real estate dealer; William B. and M. D. Ogden, real estate dealer and attorney respectively; and James H. Rees, draftsman and surveyor for William B. Ogden are entries that even the casual reader would observe.
Pioneers of the Press.
The press was represented by William Stuart, publisher and editor of the Daily American, and John Wentworth, publisher of the Chicago Democrat, 167 Lake street.
Modern mails and transportation lines are represented in embryo by Fred Tuttle, mail contractor between Chicago and Michigan City, and Nelson Tuttle, stage agent, 180 Lake street.
There are named a Baptist church on La Salle street, near Washington and Clark; Presbyterian, Clark, near Washington; St. James’ Episcopal, Cass, near Illinois; and the Unitarian society, over the City Saloon, Clark and Lake streets.
The saloon buildings also housed the Postoffice.
Fourteen hotels are located, among them the Tremont House, and the then fashionable Sauganash, Market and Lake streets.
The territory north of Chicago avenue and east of Clark street is put down as the “Dutch Settlement.”
The pious antiquarian will find a great deal more in this old volume which cannot be mentioned.
The directory of 1843 was the next issued and the first under separate cover. It was compiled by James Wellington Norris, a lawyer. Robert Fergus speaks in anything but complimentary terms of Norris’ labors. Fergus set the type and did his best to correct Norris’ errors, but in spite of all he could do tailors and sailors were inextricably confused, names were misspelled, and locations guessed at. It is called the “General Directory and Business Advertiser of the City of Chicago for 1844.” Norris begs indulgence for mistakes with names of “old country” people and Germans. A historical sketch occupies eighteen pages, while forty-four pages are filled with 2,200 names.
Advertisements played quite as important a role in directory-making then as now. One observes the notice of H. O. Stone, 114 Lake street, groceries and wholesale and retail dry goods.
One learns from the title page that the postage on the little pamphlet was seven and one-half cents for distance in Illinois under 100 miles, otherwise twelve and one-half cents.
Old North Side Residents.
William B. Ogden lived then on Ontario street, between Cass and Rush, M. D. Ogden’s home being in the same street between Dearborn and Wolcott streets, Wolcott answering to North State.
Chicago had begun to assume a citified air. A new Catholic church was erecting at Wabash and Madison, 55×112 feet, and with a stone foundation. Thirteen churches are now counted. Among the pastors whose names are observed are the Rev. Robert W. Patterson, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Luke P. Hitchcock, pastor of the “new” Methodist Church at Randolph and Canal streets. Dr. Hitchcock is still living and at work.
Other evidences of an ambitious young city are found in the list of organizations. There was a Catholic Library society, Chicago Bible society, Society of Sacred Music, there temperance societies, a young men’s association, and a “Mechanics’ Institute,” the latter two being housed in the saloon buildings at Clark and Lake streets.
Six publications are mentioned, among them, as before, the Chicago Democrat and the Chicago Express, the Journal’s predecessor.
This directory embraced, besides names, a calendar and a varied assortment of information. The reader is informed that the weekly mail received by horseback from Michigan City in 1832 had been displaced by a mail wagon in 1833, and that in 1834 a semi-weekly four-horse stage line was established. By 1837 there was a daily Eastern mail, and at the time of issue the city boasted forty-eight mails a week, with postal receipts of about $10,000 a year. During the lake season the “great Eastern” arrived daily except Sunday at 8:30 a.m. Then there was aMichigan City land mail, a Southern mail by Peoria, a route to Galena via Rockford, another to Milwaukee, one to Janesvile, and lastly to Thornton via Blue Island.
For fire protection the directory enumerated two engine companies, one hose company, one hook and ladder company, the Chicago Fire Bucket company, and the Fire Guards. Three military organizations are named, the Chicago Guards, the Chicago Cavalry, and the Montgomery Guards.
Rush Medical College advertises a corps of five professors. Eight public schools are given, with 818 scholars. But the pride of the city is the Chicago Female Seminary.
The census population statement is given as 7,580.
The advertisements are as instructive as the reading matter. One observes Orrington Lunt’s name as a forwarding and commission merchant. W. B. Ogden and W. E. Jones are conducting the Northwestern Land agency.
Exports for 1842 are set down at $659,000, imports at $664,000, the exports including 586,000 bushels of wheat.
Second Shows Growth.
Norris got out a second directory for 1845-’46. Fergus again being the printer. It is, like its predecessors, a thin book, seven inches long and four inches wide, but is bound in a pasteboard cover and includes approximately 3,450 names, while claim is made for a total population of 10,800. Nearly all the prominent churches are shown in credible woodcuts and their size and cost are carefully set down. The First Universalist, 35×75; the Unitarian, 42×60; the First Baptist, 55×80 feet in dimensions, were mentioned with pride as ornaments of the city. A generous advertising patronage affords additional information of a most varied character to the students of early Chicago.
The directory of 1846-’47, issued by Norris & Gardiner, from the press of Geer & Wilson, has 3,950 names. For the first time the principal streets are laid down. Clark is spelled “Clarke” and Sangamon “Saugamon,” evidently misprints. “First” street is laid down as south of Jackson, while First avenue is west of the “branches.” Wells street is spelled “Welles” and it extends both north and south of the river. The remaining streets up to Chicago avenue and west as far as Halsted were named, with few exceptions, as they are now.
At this period the directory makers strove to make their production take the place of an almanac, postal guide, and city year book. The directory of 1846 has a “counting-house almanack and calendar” and room is found for a few pages of supposed jokes, along with the postoffice directory of Illinois and a review of local progress.
Under the head of “New Improvements”
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