Occupants: Wiliam Armour, Silas B. Cobb
Location: 2017 S. Prairie
Life Span:
Architect:
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880
Cobb Silas B. capitalist and pres. C. C. Ry. 3, 126 Dearborn, house 2101 Prairie av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1884
Armour William 48, 175 Dearborn, house 2017 Prairie av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1885
Armour William 48, 175 Dearborn, house 2017 Prairie av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1887
Armour William capitalist 116, 205 Lasalle, h. 2017 Prairie av.
Inter Ocean, January 2, 1887
The two stately houses, numbered respectively 1923 and 1945, between Mr. Murray’s and Twentieth street, are the homes of two wealthy widows, Mrs. Charles P. Kellogg and Mrs. George Armour. The last named is spending the winter in England, and is estimated worth over $1,000,00. It is her oldest son, Mr. George A. Armour, of No. 1932 Calumet avenue, who is the benefactor of that most worthy charity, St. Clement’s Church. Another son is Mr. William Armour, who lives at No. 2017, and is rich for a young man and young for a rich man. He inherited vast wealth, and has an annual income, and is not troubled about his ranch. Mr. William B. Walker is at home at No. 2027, and can there welcome his brothers-in-laws, Coleman and Armour. Another of the Otis family lives modestly and quietly at No. 2033.
Chicago Tribune, January 9, 1898
Silas B. Cobb is one of the widowers of the street. He is also one of the landmarks of Chicago. He is a man of great wealth, and lives in a wide, rambling, red brick house at 2027, next door south of the attorney, James L. High. With Mr. Cobb are Mr. and Mrs. William B. Walker and Charles Cobb Walker. Mrs. Walker is Mr. Cobb’s daughter. Two doors north of the Cobb residence his daughter Bertha used to live. She was Mrs. William Armour. Her husband died, and later she was married to Walter D. Denegre, a resident of New Orleans, who not long ago missed an election to the United States Senate by the narrow margin of three votes.
Mrs. Cobb died several years ago. She was one of the twin Warren girls whose father settled in the vicinity early, and established the place near Warrensville. Her twin sister is Mrs. Jerome Beecher, who is now a widow but not a resident of Prairies avenue. They were beautiful girls, and widely known among the older inhabitants. Jerome Beecher was once a business partner of Silas B. Cobb in the shoe and leather business. Mrs. Beecher lives at 241 Michigan avenue. Mr. Cobb os now above 80 years of age. He walks about in the avenue, and takes the air in the constant company of a valet. He is a large owner of Chicago City railway stock. He took steps toward perpetuating his memory recently by building the beautiful Cobb Hall for the Chicago University. He has also given large sums to the charities of the city.
Chicago Tribune, April 6, 1900
Silas B. Cobb, the Chicago pioneer, who for a week had been ill at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. William B. Walker, 2027 Prairie avenue, died yesterday morning at 1 o’clock. Mr. Cobb was 88 years old and had spent nearly the three score years and ten allotted to man for life in active business in Chicago. His death was the result of a cold, developing into pneumonia.
For several days he had been at the point of death, but an unusual vitality sustained him, and once it was even thought he might recover. Dr. Frank Billings was the attending physician. From the time that pneumonia set in he gave little hope of his patient’s recovery on account of the advanced age of Mr. Cobb.
The funeral will take place tomorrow at 1:30 p. m. from the ‘ residence of W. B. Walker, 2027 Prairie avenue. The burial will be private.
Silas B. Cobb belonged to the small number of pioneers who antedated the “early settlers” in Chicago. He was one of the few grown men found here by such men as Fernando Jones and Stephen F. Hale when they came here in the ’30s. The only two houses now known to be standing which were here then, the Green Tree Tavern and the “Kinzie house” in West Lake street, were built by Mr. Cobb.
While Mr. Cobb was known as an old settler, he had been active in business interests for over half a century, and was connected with some of the enterprises that had much to do with the development of the city. He had many valuable properties on the South Side. He was President of the Chicago City railway company when its first cable line was built. He was interested in some of the earliest railroads that stretched out from Chicago toward the Northwest.
Reminiscences of His Career.
Reminiscences of Mr. Cobb’s early career among the older settlers of Chicago are many.
“Mr. Cobb was one of the few grown men on the ground when I landed here in 1835,” said Fernando Jones. “He was a harness-maker and had a small shop of his own. Previous to that he had helped to build a few houses on the West Side. I know of only two houses of that time that are still stand ing in Chicago. There is the Green Tree Tavern in Milwaukee avenue and the. Kinzie. house in West Lake street. Mr. Cobb helped to build both of those. Mr. Cobb was at one time in partnership with Jerome Beecher. They married twin sisters, and Mrs. Beecher Is still living, although Mrs. Cobb has been dead for some time. These sisters belonged to the early Warren family, and it was their father, Daniel Warren, who founded the village called Warrenville.”
“Silas B. Cobb was one of the last links to unite the early days of Chicago, which I remember, with the present,” said E. T. Watkins. “It is just fifty-two years last Sunday since I came to Chicago. Mr. Cobb was here then, but I know of few still living who were. Mr. Cobb was a member of my cabinet when I was President of the Chicago Gaslight and Coke company. He was with me for the ten or twelve years that I was President.
“He did not become prominent as a business-man until he took an interest in railroads. He was a quiet man, but persevering. To his persistence, perhaps, more than any thing else, he owed his success.
“Mr. Cobb was one of the most modest. unassuming men I have known,” said E. G. Keith. “I respected him highly. He was always desirous of doing the right thing. When I came here I believe he was in the brokerage business with Jerome Beecher in Lake street. He was always busy, and so quiet that we heard little of him.”
Born in Vermont.
Mr. Cobb was born in Vermont on Jan. 23, 1812. He was 21 years old when he left Montpelier in the spring of 1833. Coming West by way of the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo, he arrived at last in Fort Dearborn on May 20. Without money enough to pay the Captain of the schooner what he demanded for extra food and without friends, Mr. Cobb was obliged to remain aboard three days until he was able to borrow $3. He then came ashore and within a few days was working at the carpenter’s trade. The profits from a shoe shop and harness store, which was his first business venture, were invested in real estate, and in this way he made money. He was a director of the Chicago Gaslight and Coke company in 1857. For many years he was a director in the Chicago and Galena Union and the Belolt and Madison railroads.
Cobb Hall at the University of Chicago will perpetuate the name of the pioneer. Cobb Hall is the central building of the group where at present the offices and general recitation-rooms are located. Mr. Cobb gave $150,000 for its erection.
- 2017 S. Prairie Ave.
Robinson Fire Insurance Map
1886
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