Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1880
THE NEW CITY DIRECTORY FOR 1880,
issued by the Chicago Directory Company made its appearance yesterday, somewhat earlier in the year than has been usual for some time back. Like its many predecessors, it is a handsomely-printed, neatly-bound volume, and, so, as a casual examination discloses, and, so has the very desirable merit of accuracy. It contains 170,388 names, an increase of 9,176 over last year. Multiplying this year’s figures by three and a half, as is customary, not only here but in St. Louis, Cincinnati, and other places, the estimated population runs up to 596,358, as against 562,242 for last year, or an increase of 32,116. The figures are considerably ahead of those which will be shown by the forthcoming census report, but, as the Directory correctly observes, the census enumeration is arbitrarily confined within the corporate limits, which do not in reality represent the actual extent of the city. The Stock-Yards, for instance, with their immense limits, are credited as a part of Chicago everywhere except in the census. Outside the city limits the streets are continuously and solidly built up, and the residents are really a part of its population. In addition to this, the Directory man includes the names of those who do business in the city and live outside as actual citizens, and in this way builds up for the City by the Lake a population of 596,000 souls. But with the gratifying showing to be presented by the forthcoming census, the people of Chicago will no doubt be modest enough to knock off the extra 96,000, call it 500,000, and let it go at that. St. Louis and Cincinnati are to be commiserated as it is, and it would be the acme of cruelty to taunt them with 96,000 more than Uncle Sam’s records give us.1
Inter Ocean, July 3, 1880
The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago for 1880, compiled by Thomas Hutchinson, is ready for delivery. It is a huge volume of 1,523 pages, and would make a St. Louis man weep to look at it. It embraces a complete general business directory and street guide, and contains a large amount of miscellaneous information.
Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1880
The new Lakeside Directory for 1880-1 is out. It contains 170,388 names, which is 9,476 more than its predecessor. The population of the city estimated at 3½ persons for each name in the Directors, would be 596,358, or about 100,000 more than the National census. The discrepancy is accounted for by the fact that the Directory contains thousands of names of persons who merely do business in the city and live in the suburbs.—Evening Journal.
No, that is not the reason of the “discrepancy.” The discrepancy is caused by multiplying the names in the Directory by 3½, which is too high a multiplier. Three is enough; multiply by three and the result is 511,164. This will include most of the persons in the suburbs who do business in the city. St. Louis has made herself ridiculous by multiplying the names in her directory by three and a half or four.
Chicago Tribune, June 31. 1881
THE NEW DIRECTORY.
Chicago’s Present Population, 540,71
The new City Directory, compiled by Thomas Hutchinson and published by the Chicago Directory Company, will be issued in a few days, and, judging from the appearance of the advance sheets furnished The Tribune, will eclipse even its numerous predecessors in the fullness and accuracy of the information to be gleaned from its pages, as well as in point of typographical beauty. As usual, it will embrace a complete general and business directory, a vast amount of; miscellaneous information, and that very useful feature—the street-guide. Surprising and gratifying as were the results obtained in the way of arriving at Chicago’s population by the census of 1880, it may be a matter of still more surprise and gratification to know that the estimated increase in population since the census was taken is 37,406, which, on the basis of the census figures, would give Chicago an approximate total at this time of 540,711 inhabitants. The following introduction to the new Directory, under the head of “Our Population.” shows the
Remarkable Approximation
of its estimates last year to the more complete returns of the census-takers, and will naturally commend the accuracy of its estimates for 1881:
A city directory contains only representative names: hence, when used as a basis for estimating population, its contents are increased by such a multiplier as is believed to represent the unrecorded family and dependents of those whose names are given.
From causes sufficiently evident, the multipliers proper for different cities vary considerably, being higher in the older East than in the younger West. In Chicago it has heretofore been supposed that an increase or three and one-half times would produce a very close approximation to the true population.
The National Census fortunately furnishes an opportunity of correcting the multipliers so used. It gave to Chicago, in 1880, a population of 503,305, while the directory of that year contained 170,388 names; the Population being about three times (2.95) greater than the number of directory names.
This volume contains 183,292 names, an increase of 12,904, which shows a present population of 540,711; a gain of 37,106 within the year.
It should not be forgotten, however, that these figures show only the population within, the street corporate limits, omitting the closely-built residence districts immediately beyond the border line, the Stock-Yards, and the numerous suburban towns, all of which are, in fact, as thoroughly portions of Chicago as the several wards, and whose residents are scarcely less closely identified with its daily life.
The Census population of Cook County in 1880 was 607,468, being about three and one-half (3.57) times greater than the number of city directory names. The present issue contains 183,292 names, indicating a county population of 634,352 (a gain of 46,884), of which 600,000, in round numbers, are actual residents of Chicago.
This large annual increase of the Chicago Directory will, in the future, necessitate a more condensed style of certain classes of information.
Inter Ocean, July 1, 1881
IS YOUR NAME IN?
The new directory has at last been put upon the market of a universal demand. Never was there such a moving day in Chicago as the 1st of May last, and in view of this fact that everybody, nearly, lives somewhere else but where he’s put down for in the old directory, the “revised edition” becomes as great a blessing as the revised edition of the New Testament, and it is to be feared it will be examined oftener than the last-named work. The new directory is handsomely bound, substantially gotten up. and, so far as a cursory examination will show, contains everybody, in the right place. The miscellaneous information section of the directory is both full and well arranged, and contains considerable additional information to what was contained in last year’s directory. The volume is a bulk one, containing 1,600 pages, and 183,292 names, an increase of 12,904 over last year’s, and an estimated gain of 37,406 in the population during the year. From these figures it is estimated that the present population of Chicago is 540,711 within the corporate limits alone, though the publisher estimates the actual population of Chicago at 600,000. The new directory is certainly a satisfactory one in every sense of the term, both as speaking well for Chicago’s greatness and for the large amount of information it contains, and its publishers. the Lakeside Publishing Company, and its compiler, Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, both deserve great praise for their able and excellently compiled and neatly printed volume.
Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1882
THE NEW DIRECTORY.
Some Interesting Fats Gleaned from an Hour’s Perusal.
The Tribune bas received an early copy of the new City Directory for 1882, which has been compiled by Mr. Thomas Hutchinson and printed by Donnelley, Gassette & Loyd. In all respects the book is a creditable production. Its typographical execution is of the best, and so far as can be judged from a cursory examination it is as correct as it is possible to make such a work. As a matter of course it is larger than that of last year, the increase being seventy pages, representing about 12,000 names. The usual items of general information as to the City and County Government, fire-alarm boxes, churches, schools, societies, etc., are given, and some new features have been added.
A column of the Directory contains from seventy to ninety names, and a careful estimate, making due allowances for the small display “ads” at the top of the columns and for double lines, figures out about 196,000 names as the total contained in the book. Last year in order to arrive at the probable population from this data, the publishers multiplied the 183.292 names in the 1881 directory by 2.95, which was considered a very moderate allowance, a multiplier of 3½ being generally adopted by other Western cities. This gave Chicago an estimated population of 540,711, and the same rule applied to this year’s (estimated) figures would show a population of about 580,000, which is well within the mark. The usual count of figures has not been furnished with the copy received, And an attempt to get the number of names from the compiler failed for the reason that by some grim irony that gentleman’s private address was not given in the book. Possibly be lives in the country, but at any rate only his business address is given
Of course Mr. Smith comes to the front this rear as usual. There are twenty-one columns of him, not to speak of five columns of Schmidts and one of Schmitts. John Smith has two columns for his private use. The next largest occupant of territory is a name of Johnson, who claims nineteen columns, Brown following with twelve. There are 12 columns of Andersons and Andersens: Miller gets 11 and Mueller 2½. Peterson and Petersen combined get 9 columns, Nelson 7, Hanson and Hansen 6, and Olson and Olsen 6; which accounts for all the more popular Scandinavian patronymics. Of the names of English, Welsh, or Scotch origin, Williams shows up with 8 columns to his credit. Jones with 6, Moore, Davis, Taylor. and White each with 5 columns. Clark and Clarke, if they may be combined, are entitled to S columns, and our old friend Thompson with a “p” is credited with 7, the more exclusive Thomson being hardly named.
Passing to names of Hibernian extraction the various septs who write themselves “Mc” occupy sixty-three solid columns, of which four go to the McCarthys and three to the McDonalds. The “O’s” come next with twenty-four columns, the O’Briens taking just one-fourth the total. Ryan and Murphy each get seven. Sullivan six, and Kelly and Kelley combined six. Burke three, and Burns three. It is difficult to decide which is the most popular German name, but the Schultzs seem to follow next after the Schmidts.
Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1883
THE NEW DIRECTORY OUT.
A copy of the Lakeside Directory of Chicago for 1883 has been received by The Tribune, and the issue will be ready for general distribution today. The comprehensive and accurate character of this, the standard directory of the city, is well know and thoroughly appreciated by the public. This year’s edition, though seemingly smaller. is really larger than that of last year, being printed on a thinner paper of a harder and tougher class, made expressly for the purpose. In addition to the usual voluminous information the present issue contains a short sketch of the growth of Chicago, with valuable statistical information relative to the leading industries of the city.
Chicago Tribune, June 27, 1884
THE DIRECTORY.
What the Volume Tells in the Year 1884.
The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago for 1884, compiled by Thomas Hutchinson, and just published by the Chicago Directory Company, contains several features of interest as regards the remarkable growth of the city during the last year. Compared with the directory for 1883 it gives evidence that the wealth and population of Chicago have increased in the last twelve-month at a faster pace than during any year of the previous decade. The directory for 1884 contains 1,432 pages, against 1,348½ in that for 1883; and there is an increase of 13,500 names, which is estimated to mean an increase of about 45,000 in population. The number of important business firms and enterprises has likewise increased at an unprecedented rate, causing the addition of twenty-seven pages to the business portion of the directory. The work contains the usual information as to the streets, institutions, and officers of the city, and has convenient indexes.
To a seeker after curiosities the directory of a large cosmopolitan city like Chicago is an inexhaustible field of research. Most of the great names of history are found here with their street numbers and occupations attached. For instance, there are two dozen Schillers, 210 Burnses, 205 Burkes, one Goethe, 15 Goughs, a column of Sheridans and two of Shermans, 280 Moores, five Byrons—all laborers or shoemakers—a dozen Brownings, twenty Irvings, two Tennysons, twenty-six Washingtons—two of them Georges—thirty-five Logans, five Blaines. and a Bismarck and a Gladstone, both peddlers. The Smith family, of course, outnumbers any other, having 1,680 representatives, and of these there are 94 plain Johns and 41 who were christened Charles. Next after the Smiths come the Johnsons with 1,657 representatives, of whom 150 can claim letters for John Johnson and 85 for Charles Johnson. The patrician wing of the family, who spell their name Johnston, number 211. Of blain Browns there are 922, and 33 more who add an e to the name. There are 474 Whites, 77 Blacks, 239 Greens, 159 Grays, 5 Blues, 1 Purple, 1 Olive, 1 Vermillion, and 1 Violet. The Thompsons number 466, the Williamses 632, and the Jacksons 246. The least-worked letter of the alfabet is x, only two names being found under that letter in the directory.
Inter Ocean, June 27, 1884
The New City Directory.
The City Directory for 1884 is out. It is in compact form, and printed in the same neat style of last year. It contains 1,432 pages, while that of 1883 contained but 1,342. There is an increase of 13,500 names, giving an estimated increase in population of over 45,000. These figures show a greater increase in every respect than has been known during the past ten years. The first 111 pages contain the index and valuable information, including street guide, location of public buildings, corporations and society headquarters, etc. The business directory contains 352 additional pages, being twenty pages more than were required in this deportment last year, showing the increase and importance of new business greater than this city has heretofore known. In connection with this remarkable increase of population the increase of building is worthy of mention. During the year 1883 there were 4,086 buildings constructed in Chicago, with a total frontage of 85,588 feet, at a cost of $22,162,610. During the first six months of the present year there are evidences the rapid strides taken in the past by the metropolis of the West will be maintained at a corresponding ratio of increase during coming years.
Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1885
THE NEW DIRECTORY.
The City Directory for 1885-’86 is out and will be delivered to subscribers tomorrow. The new volume is gotten up in its usual style and is somewhat larger than last year. The increase in the population of the city during the last year is estimated at close onto 40,000, and the actual population today is put down as not far from 700,000. The directory for 1884 had 1,432 pages, while this year it contains 1,499, an increase of sixty-seven pages. The preface of the new directory sets forth that the building interests of the city have shown no appreciable diminution either in the number or value of structures. Over 4,000 buildings were put up during 1884, covering more than twenty miles of street frontage and costing nearly $20,000,000. The advertising patronage of the directory is as good as usual.
Chicago Tribune, July 2, 1885
The new city directory, just issued, contains the names and addresses of 310,746 people—an increase of 10,717 over last year. Allowing each name to represent five persons, the present population of New York is 1,553,730.
Inter Ocean, March 27, 1886
THE CITY DIRECTORY BOYCOTT.
A member of the Typographical Union, and one of its representatives in the Trades and Labor Assembly, speaking in reference to a proposition lately considered in the Trades Assembiv, to boycott the City Directory, if the printing thereof was awarded to the nonunion office of R. R. Donnelley & Son, said:
- We are working on the matter now, and expect to reach an understanding with Mr. Donnelley. We do not consider so much where the printing of the City Directory is done, as the fact that we do not want the office to be a non-union one. We want to have it with us. In regard to boycotting the City Directory, we never proposed to do it by withholding 30,000 names, as some of the papers said we threatened. On the contrary, if we set. about boycotting the book, we would have put in it 30,000 names with such a variety of addresses and general information that it would be perfectly worthless, and then we would go for the advertising. It would be an easy matter to boycott the directory, but what we want to do now is to bring about an arrangement with Mr. Donnelley, looking toward a settlement of our disagreement with him.
Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1886
The New City Directory for 1886.
The new City Directory for 1886 has just been issued by the publishers. It contains 1,996 pages, being 138 more than last year’s volume. The general directory comprises 3,004 columns, aggregating over 225,000 names and addresses, or something like 17,000 more than last year, while the business directory has been considerably extended. The increase in population for the year is claimed by the publishers to have been about 50,000, and their estimate, calculated upon the usual methods, is that Chicago now contains over 750,000 people. A large increase is noticeable in the number of new manufacturing and mercantile enterprises, and it is also to be remarked that there is a rapidly-growing tendency on the part of the retail trade to seek new thoroughfares, especially upon the avenues that stretch east and south of the old business centre.
A. N. Marquis & Co’s Handy Business Directory of Chicago 1886-7
INTRODUCTION.
The aim of The Handy Business Directory of Chicago is indicated by the title of the book. It is to present in the most convenient form for reference, the name, occupation and address of all firms engaged in business or professional pursuits. To do this, a feature never before employed in Business Directory making for Chicago has been adopted.In addition to the usual list of names classified according to the business, there is an alphabetically arranged list without regard to occupation. Thus, with the name of the firm or individual known, the location and business pursued may be speedily ascertained.
It is the common experience of almost every one who finds it necessary to consult the ordinary classified directory that the particular name desired cannot be found. The fault ofttimes is not that the name is omitted altogether, but because it may be under anyone of a half dozen or more different headings, the majority of which, at least, are wholly unknown to the inquirer. With the arrangement adopted in the compilation of The Handy Business Directory, this difficulty is entirely removed.
The telephone numbers, given in the alphabetical directory, pages 49 to 369, also constitute an important feature of the book, the practical advantage of which, it is believed, will be at once recognized. No other directory has attempted to give them complete.
The area of territory embraced by this compilation is greater than that of any other directory. It extends far beyond the corporate limits of Chicago, and approximates, if indeed it does not exceed, sixty square miles. South to Seventy-fifth street, more than eight miles from the City Hall; north to Diversey avenue, four miles from the City Hall; and to the west everything is included, except the town of Jefferson, to the open prairie, an average distance of fully five miles from the lake shore. Within this space there are, as shown by a careful computation of the names in this volume, 35,708 firms, corporations and individuals engaged in thevarious business pursuits.
The Handy Business Directory will be issued annually about the first of July.
Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1887
The New City Directory Is Out.
The Lakeside Directory of the City of Chicago for the year 1887 has reached the subscribers with the gratifying statement in the preface that its contents plainly indicate that the city’s population has passed 800,000 souls. The book is bound in the same old style, with about the same advertisers occupying its outer covers and edges, but it contains 100 more pages than that of 1886. All the prominent families are represented as of yore, and it is be noted that the Smiths and Smythes have grown with the remainder of the population, for in 1886 they took twenty-five columns of the directory’s space, while this year it takes twenty-six and a half columns to notice them all. The Browns have apparently been idle, for their names occupy almost exactly the same space as they did a year ago, while the Joneses have swelled their numbers to the extent of nearly an additional column.
Inter Ocean, July 16, 1887
A NEW DIRECTORY.
Messrs. A. N. Marquis & Co., the well-known publishers, No. 33 Lakeside Building, have issued their new Handy Business Directory of Chicago for 1887-8. It is a compact volume of over 900 pages, neatly printed and substantially bound, and is about a fourth larger than the directory of 1886—an increase of 174 pages and nearly 3,000 names. Several improvements are noted In the work this year, chief among which is the addition of the names of individual members of firms and the executive officials of incorporated companies. The publishers state in their modest preface that a thorough canvass has been made as far south as Sixty-seventh street, north to Evanston, and west to Oak Park. The compilation therefore embraces not only the city proper, but also the principal suburbs, covering fully 150 square miles. All the features of last year’s directory have been preserved in the present volume. All telephone numbers are again given, and in addition to the usual list of names classified according to the business, there is an alphabetical arrangement of all the names without regard to the occupation. Thus any name can be easily found when the business of the firm or individual is not known. The directory contains 38,29l names, all engaged in business or professional pursuits. So It will be seen that at least one person out of every twenty-one in Chicago (counting the entire population at 800,000) is engaged in some mercantile, manufacturing or professional pursuit on his own account. Tbe price ot tha book is only $2, which is certainly very low.
Chicago Tribune, July 19, 1887
Rival Directory Publishers Have a Falling Out.
The Chicago Directory Company, publishers of the “Lakeside Directory,” filed a bill in the United States Circuit Court against A. N. Marquis to prevent him from publishing a directory containing an alleged pirated copy of complainant’s lists of streets and avenues. Marquis has for several years been publishing a “Handy Business Directory of Chicago,” and in the edition of the present year he has inserted a list of the streets and avenues which is said to be a substantial copy of the same list in complainant’s last year’s edition, even copying the errors and mistakes. As the directory was duly copyrighted the company asks the protection of the copyright law.
Inter Ocean, May 24, 1888
CANVASSING FOR THE DIRECTORY.
This is the time of the year when the City Directory man is seen ringing at every doorbell on his beat, and inquiring for the names and occupations of the inmates of the house. There are different types of directory canvassers, and Manager R. B. Donnelly says that a good one is a rara avis. Some are too quick and others not quick enough. There is the business-like canvasser, who jerks the door-bell as though he had only a minute to spare, and begins asking questions before the surprised servant girl knows what he wants. This fellow does his work very rapidly, but he is often taken for a book-agent and summarily ejected by the footman. Them there is the timid canvasser, who pulls the bell with a modest air, and sometimes waits for half an hour or more until the girl condescends to let him in. He is generally very successful with the ladies, however, in spite of his bashfulness. But the best canvasser of all is the suave, polite, but rather condescending gentleman who is not afraid of wasting a little time in making a few commonplace remarks, and who generally gets his information direct from the lady of the house. He makes such an impression on Mary that she can’t say Missis is out. This gentleman is a born canvasser, and when the directory managers secure him, they rarely let him go.
Manager Donnelly has about 175 canvassers pacing the streets of Chicago this year. They go to every house in the city, even the most miserable tenement houses on the West Side, In the residence quarters each man takes a street, first going down one side and then up the other, but in the business section a canvasser is given a block, and he has to find but every man in it who rents an office or even a desk. About the middle of April Mr. Donnelly advertised for canvassers, and selected the most intelligent among the applicants. These he drilled every day in his office for nearly two weeks before putting them to work. Most of the canvassers were new men, but about a dozen were veterans who had been in the business a number of years.
“Do rou have much tromble with the men?” Mr. Donnelly was asked by a reporter for The Inter Ocean.
“Well, sometimes I have a little trouble with the new hands, but I imagine the canvassers themselves have the hardest time of it. Very often a canvasser tries to loaf on his beat, but of course we can find him out pretty quickly. Last year one of them spent all his time in a beer saloon, and then sent in a long list of bogus names. It was a stupid trick, for we only had to refer to the old directory to find him out. Of course we know that every resident on the street could not have moved in a year. It may appear singular, but our canvassers have the greatest trouble among the best people in the city and among the worst, The extremely high-toned ladies won’t take the trouble to see the canvassers, and it is difficult for them to get a correct report from the servant girls. Then in the slums, as most of the denizens are foreigners and rarely understand English, our canvassers have a decidedly hard time of it. In the neighborhood of Seventeenth street and the lumber district there is a crowd of Italians, Bohemians, Germans, and Swedes. They are not separated into colonies, but are all jumbled up together. As none of our men understand all these different languages, getting their names and occupations is a tremendous task, especially in some places where a dozen people of different nationalities all live in one room. The canvassers call this district the hornets’ nest,’ and I think the title very appropriate.”
Mr. Donnelly says that the directory will be issued this year about the end of June. The examiners who go over the canvassers’ slips have not begun work yet, but will begin a day or two.
Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1889
City Directory Statistics.
City directory statistics, coming as they do every year, have lost a great part of their novelty, but people never get tired of knowing just how many Smiths there are about them. This year the Smith family number 3,450 and occupy twenty-three pages in the new city directory. Small grocers are the most numerous in the list of business establishments, numbering 2,416; the largest body of professional men in Chicago are the lawyers, who number 1,050; the railroads entering Chicago number a round 100, many of which have their general offices here; there are 43 churches in the city, 91 of which are Roman Catholic; the number of public and private schools is 138, with 16 public libraries and reading-rooms; 34 charitable asylums are enumerated, and there are 22 pages of societies of all kinds. The preface to the new directory places the population of Chicago at 900,000.
The city is protected by a fire department having 638 men in service, with 266 horses, 43 hose reels, 2 chemical engines, 14 hook and ladder trucks, and two river fireboats.
NOTES:
1Chicago’s actual 1880 population as reported by the 1880 census was 503,185.
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