Newberry Block

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Newberry Block,
Life Span: 1850
Location: North Wells street, northeast corner Kinzie
Architect: Burling

D. B. Cooke & Co.’s City Directory for the Year 1859-60

Newberry William L.

Halpin & Bailey’s City Directory for the Year 1863-64
Newberry’s Block, N. Wells, n e cor Kinzie
Newberry William L., 111 Kinzie, h 99 Rush
Chicago Historical Society,—Newberry’s building, N. Wells, Kinzie corner N. Wells street, Rev. W. Barry, Librarian

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1866
Chicago Historical Society, Newberry Block, N. Wells, cor. Kinzie, W. L. Newberry, pres.
Newberry William L., office 111 Kinzie, r. 93 Rush

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870-71
Newberry Block—North Wells street, northeast corner Kinzie.
Newberry Walter L. estate of, 111 Kinzie, Newberry blk.

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1871
Newberry Block—N. Wells street, ne. cor. Kinzie.

Chicago Tribune, December 28, 1850

W. Newberry has also erected s brick dwelling on the north side. H. Burling, architect.

Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1858

Chicago Historical Society.-The Society held its late meeting, on the 20th-inst., at their new rooms in Newberry’s block, on the corner of Wells and Kinzie streets, in the North Division, the President, W. H. Brown, Esq., in the chair.

The Librarian reported 225 books, pamphlets and charts received during the month, including a complete set of the documents of the Thirty-Fourth Congress, uniformly bound, from the Department of the Interior, for which the Society passed its acknowledgements of the courtesy and attention of Hon. J. F. Farnsworth, our representative in Congress. Several interesting communications were read.

At this meeting were received two bound volumes of the Illinois Intelligencer, published at Vandalia; the first extending from December 23, 1820, to February 22,1823, (vol. 5 to 7,) published by Brown & Berry; the second volume (vol. 11th) from April 14, 1827, to April 5, 1828, published by Robert Blackwell.

The volume first referred to also includes, (with the Intelligencer) & single copy of all the newspapers; then published (in the opinion of Mr. Brown) in the States of Illinois and Missouri.

Chicago Tribune, November 20, 1868

Walter Loomis Newberry.
The links of the chain that bind na to the generation just passing away are dropping off one by one, and soon none of these brave pioneers of civilization and progress, who founded our city. watched over its infancy, rejoiced in Its sturdy youth, and are proud of its early manhood, will remain. They cant ever see the full fruits of the seed they planted. It is only by looking with the mind’s eye far beyond the narrow limit of their lives they can get an idea of the future greatness of Chicago. But these men cannot be forgotten, and their names will live after them in the history of our city. Another of these original citizens and “oldest inhabitants,” has passed away. We refer to Walter L. Newberry, who died on board the steamship Periere on the 6th instant, while on his way to Paris to join his family. When he left home—in opposition to the advice of his friends, who rightly conjectured he would not bear the fatigue and discomfort of an ocean voyage—he was suffering from consumption of long standing, and, like most victims of that deceptive malady, had overweening confidence in his strength, and as he longed to see his family and hoped to benefit by a winter’s residence in the mild climate of the south of France, he started in good spirits. He sailed from New York on the first 1st instant, and on the 6th, when four days’ sail from Havre, he expired. A despatch announcing the melancholy event was received in this city on Wednesday evening. It is understood that his remains will be brought home and placed to rest beneath hie native sod.

Walter Loomis Newberry was born of true Yankee parents, on September 18, 1804, at East Windsor, Connecticut. He was, therefore, sixty-four years of age at the time of his death. Shortly after his birth, his parents, yielding to that spirit of enterprise characteristic of New Englanders, emigrated to a new home in Oneida County, New York. Here he grew up amid the vicissitudes and hardships of frontier life, snd gained much experience. which served him well in his subsequent career. He was of a venturesome spirit, and longed to be away from home, carving his own way through the world. While yet young, he became clerk to his brother, a merchant in the then small town of Buffalo, snd afterwards at Detroit. When nearly thirty years of age he came further West in search of fame and fortune. He settled in Chicago in 1833, and since found the latter in abundance and the former in a small degree. Those who are acquainted with the history of the city know what kind of a place Chicago was at that early day. With the sagacity and sound sense that have been his unerring guides through life, he saw that the marshes and swamps outside the city would, in course of time, be the site of houses, streets and avenues, filled with a busy population. He anticipated all that, and, as fast as he could make money in the firm of Newberry & Birch, bankers, invested it in real estate. He bought forty acres on either side of North Wells street, where, at one time, he owned a mile of frontage. His property is now immensely valuable.He kept a tenacious hold of it, and the most liberal offers could not tempt him to part with a single acre until he could do so advantageously. So closely did be pursue this line of policy, that nearly the whole of his first purchases remain in the family. As soon as the city began to extend itself over his property, he gave up banking, and for the past twenty-three years has devoted his time and attention almost exclusively enhancing its value, by judicious improvements. That forty acres of land, for which he paid only $1,100, has magnified into a fortune of $2,500,000.

Mr. Newberry was one of the projectors of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, was President of the company, and has always been on the Board of Directors. For politics he had no taste; he was never poor enough to be a politician. The stake he had in the welfare of the city made him serve several years as Alderman. He did not covet the honor for the sake of notoriety, but simply that he might have a voice and vote in shaping the destiny of the city. He was eminently useful in his public capacity, and was a highly valued member of the Council.

Of education Mr. Newberry was an earnest advocate. He was not a learned man himself, but wished everybody else to be. His money and time were given freely to the advancement of knowledge. When the Young Men Library Association was established, he was elected President, and has always evinced a deep interest in the welfare of the Historical Society, of which, at the time of his demise, he was President. He gave material assistance to the erection of the new building, and took much pride in it

In business transactions Mr. Newberry was strict and honorable. His integrity was never challenged. He was possessed of strong common sense—a rare quality in men. He was not a social man, in the ordinary acceptation of that term. His happiness was in the close communion of the family circle. A few intimate friends used occasionally to gather round his board, but he was not extravagant in his hospitality. There was not much geniality in his composition. He was cold, reserved and reticent.

He was a self-made man and did credit to his Creator. He felt the power of wealth, and reserved the right to use it aa he pleased He was not particularly generous. He gave sometimes, but aid not parade his liberality. He had seen much of the world, and, like all who have, was tinged with cynicism. Mr. Newberry was a wealthy man, too wealthy to be famous. Had his lot been otherwise cast it might have been different. As it is, he had no necessity for fame; he could afford to live without it, and any ambition he may have had therefore was crashed beneath the weight of his wealth. On the whole, Chicago has not had many citizens of greater average worth than Mr. Newberry. He has gone and the good he has done lives after him, which is more than can be said of most men.

Mr. Newberry was married in 1842 to Miss Julia Butler Clapp, daughter of the Hon. James Clapp, of Oxford, N. Y. The issue of this marriage are two daughters, Mary and Julia R., aged 22 and 17 respectively. The latter has been attending school in Paris.

National Police Gazette

New York Times

Times

Inter Ocean, January 3, 1886

A HIDEOUS FALSEHOOD.
The Sensational Story Regarding the Interment of Walter L. Newberry a Fabrication.
A Fellow Passenger with the Deceased Tells the Story of His Death.
Those Who Received His Remains Testify to the Untruth of the Cruel State-ment.
Special Telegram to The Inter Ocean.
New York, Jan. 2.-The story regarding the alleged disposition of the body of the late Walter H. Newberry, which was sent over the wires from Chicago on Christinas Day, is without foundation. Your readers are of course familiar with the sensational narra-tive, and your correspondent will without further prelude proceed to detail the steps taken to explode the cruel falsehood. The day of publication of the matter in the New York papers the writer met a fellow passenger with Mr. Newberry on the trip on which he died, and learned the following particulars:

October 31, 1868, the French line steamer Pereire, Captain Duchesne, left this port. for Havre with Mr. Newberry as a passenger. His condition and appearance were so feeble as to call forth from a well known New York man who was on the dock when the vessel sailed the remark that he would hardly live to get across the ocean. True to this prediction Mr. Newberry was found dead in his berth on the morning of Nov. 7. Preparations were being made to consign his body to the deep. when one or more passengers who knew of the dead man’s social position and wealth intervened, and Captain Duchesne concluded to keep the remains and deliver them to the family of the deceased, who were awaiting him at Havre. The coolness of the weather and the emaciation of the body admitted of this temporary disposition of the corpse. The body was accordingly brought on deck and placed in the quarterboat on the port side of the vessel, and a tarpaulin or boat’a cover was lashed across it. The clergyman who relates this left the vessel immediately upon her arrival at Havre, a few days after the event narrated, and knows nothing of the hnal disposition of Mr. Newberry’s re-mains; but fortunately the well-kept records of the health department of this city and of the New York Custom House reveal the fact that the body of the Chicago millionaire was returned to his native lana in the regular mode pursued in the case of the transportation of a corpse from France to this country.

Through the courtesy of Mr. Nathaniel W. Howell, acting chiet clerk of the fourth division of the Custom House, and Mr. Lozier, custodian of the reo-ords, the manifests of both the steamships Periere and the Europe, on which Mr Newberry’s body was returned to this country were seen. The documents show that the cargo of the Pereire contained no Medford rum or liquor of any description except one case of wine samples; and that the Europe, which arrived in New York on Jan. 6, 1869, bore as a part of her cargo “one case Natural History,” consigned to L. W. Morris. In the margin of this entry is the following: “Oue corpse returned.” The title of this shipment is that given in every case where the consignment is a corpse. The consignee is the head of the firm of L W. Morris & Son. European expressers in this city since 1858.

Jan 9, three days after the arrival of the Europe, Mr. Morris applied to and received from the Board of Health of this city a transfer permit to “remove the body of Walter L. W. dock of the Freuch line, to Chicago, Dr. Nagle, Registrar of Vital Statistics, exhibited to your correspondent the entry on the books. The cause of death is there stated to hava been consumption and the place of demise “at sea upon the steamship Pereire, Nov. 7, 1868.” Dr. Nagle also quoted the regulation established by the French Government in regard to the transfer of a dead body. In every case where the distance to be traversed is more than 200 kilometers—125 English miles—a leaden coffin must be used, and he expressed it as his opinion that such a receptacle was undoubtedly used for the remains of Mr. Newberry.

Mr. Morris was seen, and when asked if he received the body in a cusk of liquor, as reported, laughed derisively. “I certainly did not,” he said. “If a body had been consigned to me in that way I certainly should have noted the fact I do not remember the circumstances attending the shipment of Mr.Newberry’s body, for the reason that I receive a large number of corpses every year for transfer all over the country, but I am confident that it came in the regular manner packed in a leaden case, as the French authorities specify shall be done. Mr. Schulz, an employe of the firm for twenty years, wus called by Mr. Morris, and asked i be ever heard of guch an occurence as the reception of a body in a cask of liquor.

“No, no,” said he, emphatically. “It such an event took place I never should have forgotten it.” At the office of the French steamers it was learned that no one now in the employ of the company at the office in this city was connected with the line in 1860, but the story was denounced by the present agent unquestionably false for the simple reason, if for no other, that the law of France rendered impossible the reshipping of a corpse in a cask of liquor.

The foregoing array of statistics and testimony will no doubt dispel entirely the false and unjust impression created by the fabulous story in regard to the remains of him whose generosity to the city of Chicago must commend his memory to the gratitude and sympathy of the recipients of his princely gift.

Chicago Evening Mail, January 18, 1871

The general office of the Chicago and Northwestern railway has been removed from Ogden’s Exchange building. southwest corner of Clark and Lake streets, to the Newberry block, northeast corner of Wells and Kinzie streets. This removal, which includes all the various departments of the company, brings the general offices diagonally across the street from the principal depot of the company—that of the Galena and lows divisions-and but a short distance from the depots of the Milwaukee and Wisconsin divisions.

Chicago Tribune, December 12, 1886

The (Newberry) homestead was built in 1855 or 1856, and was beautifully furnished—in fact, it was artistic and elegant for those days. The world is very apt to measure the benevolence of persons by the amount of money they give in proportion to their means, but the world does not know all nor half that such persons give quietly.

Chicago & Northwestern Station

Hatch House

Maulton House

Wright’s Hotel

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