Chicago Tribune, July 10, 1890
The New Chicago Directory Out.
The Chicago Directory for 1890 is ready for delivery. Its a bulky volume, containing 2,918 pages, as against 2,411 in the directory of 1889. The paper, however, is much thinner, so that the book is not as cumbersome as may have been anticipated in view of the increase in population due to annexation. Owing to duplications in street names the different towns are indicated by “L.” (Lake), “H. P.” (Hyde Park), etc. It is estimated from the number of names that the population of Chicago is about 1,150,000.
Chicago Chronicle, July 21, 1897
NEW DIRECTORY IS OUT. CHICAGO BIGGER THAN EVER.
The city directory for 1897, bright, crisp and unthumbed, was issued yesterday, and the volume of 1896 may now be laid away with the fifty-eight others that have helped keep track of Chieago’s rapidly growing population. The new book contains 131 more pages than the last directory, and the total number of names is 888,360. Assuming the population of Chicago to be three times as great as its directory population, Chicago should have 2,664,080 inhabitants, which is about the figure estimated by Publisher R. R. Donnelley.
The work of directory-making has been greatly facilitated by the use of the typesetting machine. The speed is far greater, and the people of the city can therefore be given more time to settle down for the ensuing year before names are canvassed for insertion in the book. The printers engaged by the Lakeside company are now thoroughly acquainted with the “style” necessitated in directory-making, and the labor of compiling the big volume will be diminished in the years to come so far as the mechanical part of it is concerned. The directory comes from a new home this year. Instead of the old building at Adams and Clark streets, the Lakeside Press Company is now located at Polk street and Plymouth place.
In the names listed in the directory the Johnsons take the lead with thirteen pages, the Smiths coming second and the Andersons third. A review of the book by avocations shows an increase of nearly 20 per cent among architects. There are 131 more doctors than last year, but the list of lawyers has been only slightly increased.
Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1899
The Chicago directory for 1899 1s about to be issued and between its covers will be found the names and addresses of 560,000 residents of the city. On the ratio which since 1890 has been the basis for the Directory Publishers’ calculations of population the city is said to have 2,020,000 inhabitants. The work of compiling and printing the huge volume is only now in a sufficiently advanced stage to make population estimates possible, and this figure, which sets the number of Chicago residents beyond the 2,000,000 mark, was reached yesterday for the first time.
No city directory was ever issued in Europe or America, of which there is any record, contained so many names, London, Paris, and New York not excepted. This volume, which is to appear within the present week, will contain 30,000 more names than are in the directory for 1898.
Ratio for Estimates.
The method of computation to find the number of persons in the city when the number of directory listed people is known, is not one of simple multiplication in this instance. It is a sort of cumulative method the mathematicians have employed. At the beginning of the present decade, when the government and school census had been taken of the city and the full count was known, the directory list for that year, 1890, was employed by R. R. Donnelley & Co. to discover the ratio. Then they used this ratio in arriving at the estimate of the yearly additions to the population. Each year an addition was made the basis on the federal census.
In 1898 the population of the city, according to this more or less convincing sort of computation, was estimated at 1,883,000 souls. When it was learned that there were 30,000 more people in Chicago than were in the city last year, this number was multiplied by 4.56 and the product added, making a grand total of 2,020,000. Some conservative statisticians say the directory total is to the whole people as 1 is to 3½, instead of as 1 to 4.56. This ratio would indicate that the increase of population in the last year was 105,000 souls, and the whole number (if last year’s estimate of 1,883,000 was correct) would be brought to 1,958,000, or a little less than 2,000,000. It is argued by others that the other ratio is within the limit of conservatism.
Some Sharp Contrasts.
The first city directory of Chicago was printed in 1838, and contained 1,220 names. The directory of 1843 contained 2,024 names. In 1853 it was 8,960; in 1863, 49,663. That was
considered a big leap, but the next decade saw a greater one, when in 1873 the directory contained 133,043 names. In 1883 it contained 196,960, in 1899 560,000.
In 1838 the city directory contained forty-five singie column pages, averaging twenty-seven names to a page. It weighed two ounces. The 1899 directory contains more than 2,000 pages, triple column, averaging ninety-five names to a column. It weighs more than ten pounds.
Smiths, Joneses, and So Forth.
The new directory will convey to the public interesting information other than that of the increase in Chicago’s population. It will tell how the Smith family, in addition to having fallen, from its eminence as the leading family of Chicago, has dusted off its crest, hyphenated its name, and otherwise maneuvered with the Saxon spelling until many members of that once supreme race now exist in perpetual disguise. As to John of that family, he has dwindled until the new directory contains but 299 of him. The whole Smith family occupies but fourteen and one-third pages.
The Johnsons reach to the extent of seventeen pages, with an additional two pages for Johnstons and Johnstones. John Johnson still lives in the city. He has 496 addresses, and does everything, from being a retired capitalist to tending bar. The Johnsons enjoy the distinction of being the largest family of Chicago.
The third place goes to the Andersons, who fill eleven pages. Browns are a tle with the Millers in a poor fourth, having each eight pages devoted to their cause. The Joneses are packed obscurely away upon five and a half pages. Ahead of them are the Nelsons, with seven pages, and Petersons and Olsens and Olsons with six pages each.
Quaint and Queer Names.
The new directory, however, will not confine itself to the staid, always-with-us, foregoing names. These form but a small portion of Chicago’s population. To the naturalist the new directory offers a wide field for research. Birds, beasts, and fishes are rep-resented. There are Quail, Doves, Pelicans, Cranes, Partridges, Storks, Blackbirds, Sparrows, Hawks, Crows, Swallows, Larks, Wrens, Jays, Ravens, Grouse, Canarys, Pigeons, Owls, Parrots, Peacocks, and Nightingales. There are two Buzzards, two Starlings, three Hens, six Ducks, a Turkey, and a Swan. The directory also will have imprisoned between its covers a lot of Bees, some Flys, four Beetles, and a Gnat.
Among the animais will be found families which bear the name of Pigg, Hog, Coon,;
Stagg, Moose, Cur, Fox, Bull, Ham, Lion, Wolf, Bear and a Bruin, Elk and Deer, Lamb, Colt, Panther, Oxen. and Steer. There are also Otters and sixteen Beavers. The beasts and birds are provided with Hay, Grain, Oats, Barley, and Wheat.
The disciples of Izaak Walton may whip the streams of directory information and catch Trout, Bass, ‘Pike, Mullet, Carp, Shiners, Pickerel, Sturgeon, Shark, Goldfish, Herring, and Salmon. The Oyster, Crab, and Turtle may be found.
Chicago Tribune, July 13, 1899
GROWTH OF CITY DIRECTORY.
This Year’s Issue Will Contain 59,000
More Names than Appeared in the 1898 Volume.
Chicago Directory company officials have added 3,400 names to the 560,000 wnich it was announced in The Tribuneof last Sunday would appear in the new city directory to be issued next week. This is 59,000 more names than appeared in the directory of one year ago.
In estimating the total population of the city from the directory figures the Chicago Directory company has taken the most conservative view of the increase, and has put the population at less than three and one-half inhabitants for every directory name. Its estimate of the city’s population is 1,942,000, whereas the estimate given in The Tribune on the basis of 560,000 names put the population slightly above the 2,000,000 mark. Some census officials estimate the total population at 4.56 times the number of names listed in the directory, which is even greater than the figures printed on Sunday. The Directory company’s officials make their population estimate from the United States census of 1890 and the averages of increase in directory names since then.
The directory probably will be issued next Wednesday. A description of the bulky
volume and some of its queer names it will contain was printed in The Tribune of last Sunday.
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